Until the Rain
by ZoologyKaM
Summary: Irken smeet Zim has been bullied and called defective all his life. After one particularly nasty beating, Zim loses everything when he's betrayed by a friend and launched into space. Alone with no way home, Zim loses all hope of ever breathing fresh air again until he crashes on Earth. Hope's restored until it starts to rain.
1. Bullies

_**A/N: **__Hey guys! Time for another story by me!_

_This story is special though, because it was actually a request from Invader Pinn. She had this idea that Zim goes to earth when he is still a smeet, but arrives when Dib is older. Now being Me, I took this many ways. This is the idea we finally decided on._

_Please forgive me because this story is completely OOCness. Not my usual style but I think after this chapter you won't have too many gripes about it, I hope..._

_Because she wishes to work on it with me, this story is likely to continue. However may I remind those that follow me as an author and alter all newcomers to the fact that __**I continue my stories on a Reviews per Chapter basis.**__  
That means I look at how many reviews a story gets per chapter and then decided which story to do the most work on. If you wish for a lot of work to get done on this then you Must leave a review. __**Anything more than 'please continue' is appreciated.**_

_Without further to-do! Enjoy!_

* * *

**Chapter 1 – Bullies**

"Give it up Zim! You're a weakling that will never amount to anything!" the Irken smeet named Red leaned back against the wall in an attempt to look cool as he stared at Zim. His best friend/crony Purple laughed beside him.

Zim felt his emotions creeping up on him. As hard as he tried, he always ended up feeling something. Feeling emotions was a very Un-Irken thing to do, and it was considered extremely disgraceful to show those emotions. Zim remained in his seat at the lunch table. He kept his eyes on his books but he couldn't keep Red's voice from reaching the audio receptors in his antennae.

"Hey Pur, I think he's ignoring us."

Purple folded his arms pretending to look insulted, "How rude! Doesn't he know that he's supposed to respect his tallers?"

Zim mumbled under his breath and ended up with a strong arm pressing down on his head. Red was there, using him as an arm rest, sneering down at him. Zim just continued staring at his books. Making eye contact only encourages them, he reminded himself.

Red snickered and pressed down harder, moving his arm so that it rubbed painfully over Zim's antenna. "Speak up Serazime! It's rude to mumble."

"Come on now Red," Purple said, resting his arm on the other side of Zim's skull. "Poor Zimmy is defective. You gotta go easy on him." Purple lifted his arm then reached out and grabbed Zim's antenna. He pulled it down painfully, forcing Zim's head back until he was unwillingly staring straight up at them. Zim let out a grunt of pain. "See! Now that there are no books in front of his face, we can hear him much better."

Red laughed. "You're completely right Pur!" he said in mock surprise. His eyes bore into Zim. "So Zim, wanna run that by us again?"

Zim tried to pull his head away but that only made Purple laugh and pull down harder. Someone's knee dug into his back so that he couldn't slide back to lessen the pain. In the end Zim realized his only choice was to say something. He mumbled his words, earning him another hard yank on his antenna. Zim tried desperately to keep his large pink eyes from watering. Last thing he needed was for them to think he was crying.

"Louder, Zim!" Red all but yelled at him.

The emotion that Zim had tried to keep hidden bubbled to the surface, "I SAID YOU'RE ONLY AN INCH TALLER!" He yelled at them. The downward pressure on his antenna weakened somewhat, but the grip on it only increased till Zim was sure Purple meant to break it.

Neither Red's nor Purple's expressions changed with the outburst; but it was obvious that they wouldn't get mad. They were true Irkens; their emotions, if they had any, would be disrupted by their ID PAKs. All that Zim's small loss of control had done was to increase their amusement in torturing him.

"Hey Red," Purple snickered, glaring at Zim and swinging his hand side to side with Zim's antenna, "I think Zim was being rude to us again. It sounded like he doesn't think being tall is important."

"You know Purple… I think you might be right!"

Red stuck out his foot and pushed the leg of Zim's chair right out from underneath him. Zim toppled to the floor, while Red and Purple laughed. Zim turned himself over trying to quickly stand up before what he knew was coming, but didn't make it in time. Red's foot caught him right in the middle of his Squeedlyspooch. Zim's tormentors walked off still laughing.

"See ya round Zim!" Red called back over his shoulder.

Zim held his torso, coughing. Red had kicked hard this time; not that any of his kicks were ever light, but something must have really pissed him off today. Zim freed one arm to push himself into a sitting position. The pain from his sensitive antennae left him feeling dizzy and nauseous. It was a few minutes before he felt confident enough to stand.

As Zim was gathering up his books, another smeet named Skoodge walked up to him. Skoodge picked up a book that had spilled onto the floor and held it out to Zim. Zim snatched the book out of his hand without even acknowledging him. Skoodge was also picked on, not because he was 'defective', but rather because he was short. He was a whole 2 inches shorter than Zim, who was average height in their class.

From the corner of his eye Zim could see that same look of pity that he always got from Skoodge.

"Zim… You need to stand up to them. You…"

"Thanks for the help." Zim grabbed his last book and turned in a hurry, heading out of the cafeteria. The last thing he needed was advice from the only other smeet that Red and Purple picked on; and even if they did call him names, Skoodge had never gotten the kind of physical torment that Zim was always dealing with. Skoodge was short, but he was also smart, and the teachers loved him; that alone was enough protection from any bullying.

Skoodge called after him as he left, but Zim ignored him.

Zim sat through his classes the rest of his day as he always would; copious note taking, trying to pay attention and not look confused, and of course hurrying into the hall so he was never left in a classroom alone.

By the time he got back to his room for the night, Zim was exhausted. His last class had been completely focused on the inner workings of the Irken PAK, something that he could never understand. It was hard enough just maintaining the mental concentration needed to control the PAK's complex equipment. Understanding how the PAK translated his thoughts into actions was far beyond him.

Zim was crashed on his bed when his roommate Larb walked in. Larb didn't even react to him; just went straight to his desk in the corner and started working on something. He worked for a few hours then climbed into bed and turned off the light.

Zim was still awake.  
He hadn't moved a muscle since he had first lain down. Twice he considered switching to hibernation mode but rejected the idea each time. _Stupid broken PAK… _he sighed heavily into his pillow. He felt completely worn out and wanted to just spend some time where he didn't have to think, but he knew that sleeping meant nightmares. As much as he tried to fight it, exhaustion caught up to him and dragged him in unconsciousness.

In the morning Zim awoke when a pillow was thrown at his face. He sat bolt upright, his body shaking as the last remnants of a nightmare clung to his half-asleep mind.

"You were doing it again…" Larb said as he got up to recover his pillow. Zim muttered a small apology. Larb sighed. "Jeeze… Why do _I_ have to be the one stuck rooming with you? Damn it Zim! It's the same thing every night! I don't care if you're failing in class but don't go dragging me down with you!" Larb got up and stomped out the door for his morning cleansing.

Zim sat up slowly, hugging his arms close to him. The one tonight had been worse than normal; he couldn't stop the shaking. With deep breaths, he forced his goo-pump rate down. If he was still upset when Larb came back he'd be sure to get yelled at again. Larb might even follow through with his threats to report Zim as damaged; if he did that, Zim would almost definitely get decommissioned.

When Larb finally came back, Zim had stopped shaking and was preparing to go to cleansing himself.

XXX

"Okay Smeets." Their instructor Varshlez stood up in front of the class; his bright amber eyes scanned the classroom with their normal chipper gaze. "Today we're taking a small fieldtrip up to the new battleship, The Massive. Our Almighty Tallest Miyuki is currently visiting Center City and has allowed a few classes to take a quick tour of the new vessel.

The Smeets around him cheered at the thought of not having homework. Zim sat quietly at his desk in the far back corner. It made no difference to him where class was held. Field trips just meant that the Instructors were paying less attention than usual as to what their class was doing.

"Alright now everyone needs to get into pairs. If there's one left over then we can have a group of three."

Zim gulped. Pairing up? That's not good. He turned to quickly look for Skoodge as his only chance for a partner, but he saw Skoodge had already been claimed by Pinn who everyone knew had a crush on him. In a panic Zim searched the room hoping there was just one other smeet that wasn't paired up. He was out of luck.

"Excuse me, Instructor Varshlez." Red stood and raised his hand.

Zim ducked his head knowing what was coming next.

Red confirmed his fears as he continued, "I think Zim doesn't have a partner." Instructor Varshlez looked around the room asking if anyone else was partnerless. Red cleared his throat loudly. "He could pair up with me and Purple," he offered. Varshlez didn't notice, but Zim saw Red's wicked smile very clearly.

Purple raised his hand and helpfully added that he didn't mind that arrangement. So, without anyone asking Zim his opinion, it was decided.

XXX

Aboard the Massive, Soldiers, Pilots, and Technicians alike were having trouble avoiding the tiny smeets that ran excitedly around the ship. The Instructors had lost all control of the situation after Red and Purple had hijacked the ship's loudspeakers and announced that fresh doughnuts were being made in the cafeteria.

When all his classmates had run off, leaving him alone, Zim followed after them; somewhere along the way though, he found himself lost in the giant ship. He had somehow gotten into a completely deserted hallway. Zim felt the panic threatening to creep up on him. No Irkens meant no Witnesses if he ran into Red and Purple. Zim ran down the hall as fast as his tiny legs would carry him.

Up ahead he saw the back of one of his classmates who was bending down as if fixing his boot. Relief flooded Zim as he hurried over to the other smeet.

"Hey! Do you know where we are? I'm totally los…" His eyes opened wide in terror as the smeet stood up; the top of the smeets head reaching 1inch over his own.

Red turned around, a malicious smirk crossing his face. "Hey there Zim. You lost?"

Zim took a step back. Red matched it. Zim retreated another step. Again Red matched it, keeping the distance between them small enough that if Zim turned to run, Red would catch him easily. Zim took one more step and his back ran into something.

Zim dived forward just as Purple's arms closed around the space he had just been standing. He pushed himself to his knees only to see Red and Purple closing in on him. Zim concentrated all his energy into everything he had practiced, and when they dove for him, Zim extended his PAK legs and leapt over Red's head.

The goo rushed in his hearing as fear propelled him down the hall. The only things he was conscious of were the ground in front of him, and the angry shouts from behind as Red and Purple used their own PAK legs to chase him.

They chased him down two hallways, through a storage room (knocking over a Technician carrying a large box of delicate computer components in the process), and back out into the hall; all the time, Red and Purple slowly closed the gap between them.

At one point Zim heard Purple laugh from less than a foot behind him. Zim closed his eyes as he dropped to the floor and swung up all the sharp tips of his PAK legs. Purple yelled out in pain. Zim didn't stop to look at what he'd done, just got back up and ran.

A few minutes later he sat in a small dark room, trying to control his heavy breathing. He could hear Red and Purple's swears echoing up and down the hallway. His goo-pump beat against his chest. Slowly the voices of Red and Purple died down.

Zim hugged his body into the small corner in the room. His faulty PAK did nothing to stop the tears that streamed down his face. _I can't do this anymore… I wish I were dead._

Zim lost track of the hours he spent hidden in that small room. He had nearly fallen asleep when a voice called out into the darkness.

"Zim? You in here?" It was Skoodge. Zim didn't move or speak; he was only aware enough use one of his PAK legs to lightly tap the metal floor. Skoodge heard the soft scratching and found Zim huddled up in the corner. "Oh Zim…" It was that same look of pity.

Normally Zim would have felt angry, but this time all he could do was ask, in a rough voice caused by hours of silent sobbing, "Is this my fault?" Skoodge said nothing, just sat down with him.

Skoodge sat with Zim for an hour before he could finally coax Zim onto his feet. Zim had said nothing since that first question. He was lost in his own thoughts, unaware of where Skoodge was leading him. Skoodge took him a ways away then directed him into another room, this one just as dark as the last. Zim stood by the door, his eyes glassed over, not really seeing anything.

"Zim!"

Zim looked up when Skoodge yelled his name. He recognized that look of pity again. It made him want to hide; instead he forced a smile. "I'm okay. Sorry about that…"

"You're not okay. Nothing is okay. The way Red and Purple pick on you, and the way you let them. With you around Red and Purple act like they rule the planet. Why can't you ever just stand up to them!?"

Zim flinched at Skoodge's harsh words.

"See! This is what I'm talking about. You never say anything… They'll never leave you alone Zim. Not as long as you're on Irk."

Zim looked around for the first time since he'd first fled from Red and Purple. He saw Skoodge standing in the middle of a fairly large room. Bubbled out of the walls were doors leading to the attached Escape Pods of the Massive. His eyes moved down back to Skoodge, but the smeet wasn't in the middle of the room anymore.

Zim felt something slam against his back. His tiny body flew ten feet through the air and into the open panel; his face smashed into one of the cushioned seats. Zim jumped to his feet, panicking for the second time in only a few hours. He ran towards the hatch but the door slammed shut in his face.

Skoodge's voice was muffled as it came through the wall. "Sorry Zim. But this is the only way to stop them."

Zim pounded on the door with his tiny fists, his voice had completely deserted him. His antennae became acutely aware of every sound, every mechanical whirring, every electrical pulse, as Skoodge sent his tiny escape pod hurtling out into space.


	2. No One Can Hear You Scream

_**A/N: **Guys I gotta say, I was blow away by the number of people that left a review asking for this story to continue. Rarely do I ever get more than 3 reviews on a chapter. But having over 70 people read the story in the first 48 hours, and 8 Reveiws... There's no way that this story won't continue now. _

_I'm excited to be able to write a story that moves people! This is the first I've ever written like it. I'll do my best (with some help from Invader Pinn of course)!_

_Hoping for more Reviews! Here's Chapter 2!_

* * *

**Chapter 2 – In Space No One Can Hear You Scream**

The first few hours floating through space, Zim stood by the exit hatch in shock. _What just happened...?_ It was the only thought that that he could comprehend, and even that wasn't entirely making it through. Only when he noticed his squeedlyspooch growling from hunger did his mind return to his current predicament.

As if in a daze, Zim calmly walked over to the control panels. _Communications. I know how to work these._ He pressed in the correct sequence of buttons to activate the long-range transmissions. Nothing happened. He typed it in again. Still nothing.

_Okay, if I can't call for help I'll just fly it back._ He turned to the steering, only to find it locked out the same as the communications.

Zim stared at the view screen for a moment. _Someone's bound to notice I'm missing, _he decided. _I'll just have to wait. I'm sure the technicians will notice that the escape pod is missing. My teachers will see that I'm missing and they'll figure it out._ This logic reassured him somehow, but as hours turned into days, it was clear that no one was coming for him.

When this realization hit, Zim began to panic. He ran circles around his tiny enclosure, yelling non-stop. He pounded his fists on the control panels, as if they would suddenly start responding to his commands. To escape the confines of the ship, he even went as far as to push on the door; the thought of what would happen if he managed to escape into the vacuum of space, never even occurring to him.

Two weeks passed before his energy levels grew so low that his PAK forced him to calm down. His fists, as well as a few other parts of his body, were badly bruised from his attempts to escape. His voice was all but gone from constant yelling. As his PAK worked to force him into Hibernation mode, Zim stared around; his vision began to fade.

_This is it… I'm going to die here. _He fought against the encroaching darkness. _NO! No…. no…._

XXX

Zim's PAK did not allow him to awaken for three full days, not until all his self-inflicted injuries were completely healed, and when it did it kept a heavy sedative running through his veins. It had somehow automatically linked up with the escape pod's life-support systems and was filtering nutrients down through a tube.

When Zim first awoke, he did nothing. He simply lay there thinking. _How could this happen? Am I ever going to make it home? Why would Skoodge do this to me? _

His thoughts raced. After a long while, Skoodge's last words came to the front of his mind. _'With you around Red and Purple act like they rule the planet' 'You never stand up for yourself!'  
_Red's voice filtered in to join it. _'Give it up Zim! You're a weakling that will never amount to anything!'  
'You're a weakling.'  
'A loser!'  
'You'll never be anything.'  
'No one cares about you!'  
'Defective!'_

_It's all my fault…_

Zim remained on the floor. He pulled his legs and arms in, hugging himself. As if he feared he would disappear. And yet… part of him wished that he would.

_It's all my fault. Everything._

The name-calling, the beatings, the constant emotional abuse by Red and Purple, the lack of friends. All of it was because Zim had never stood up for himself. True or not, once this thought had entered his mind, he was unable to get rid of it.

_It's my fault._

_It's my fault._

_It's my fault._

_It's My Fault._

Like a skipping record, that one solitary thought repeated in his mind. It was the only thing that his brain could understand. Hours passed like this, till Zim was once again forced by his PAK to sleep.

XXX

Weeks turned into months. Zim hardly ever moved. Occasionally, when he was too tired to think, the voices would disappear for a while, giving him a short breath of sanity. He would get up and stretch his weary muscles, try the controls again, anything to keep his mind busy. These times never lasted long. A few minutes at the most. Then the voices would return and Zim would find himself clawing deep gashes into his own skin just to prove to himself that he was still alive.

_I'm going to die in here, aren't I… _

Sometimes the idea of death didn't seem so bad to him. It was in those moments when he would disconnect himself from the nutrition tubes, but when his hunger grew again, he would ultimately plug himself back in. Each time he would wonder what was the point of keeping himself alive? He would consider leaving his body to starve, but again, each time his natural feelings of self-preservation would kick in and he would wake up with the tube attached to his PAK again.

Whenever he slept, Zim's dreams were filled with the torments he had suffered by Red and Purple. He would remember with horrifying clarity the life-goo oozing down the side of his face from the time Red and smashed his head into a locker then closed the door on his neck. His body would shake as fear overwhelmed him, exactly as it had when Purple had "pretended" to try and push him into the zoo exhibit with a meat-thirsty Hogulus.

_WEAK!_

_DEFECTIVE!_

The voices screamed in his audio-receptors. Once, in attempt to shut them out, Zim pulled on his antennae so hard that one of them snapped in his grip. His PAK shut him down once again for repairs.

XXX

_"Proximity Warning." _ The deep voice of the computer woke him from another forced Hibernation.

Zim opened his eyes slowly.

_"Planet ahead."_ It informed him.

XXX

"Gaz! I'm leaving for work!"

"whatever..." Dib waited at the door for two seconds till he heard his sister's amended response, "come home safe..." she said. Dib smiled and promised he would. After their dad had died last year in a horrible lab accident involving a weasel and a giant astronaut helmet, Gaz had made a point of always telling him to be safe. Her dour attitude had changed only toward her family though; Dib heard her swearing loudly at her online gaming opponent as he closed the door.

XXX

Dib's walk home was peaceful. It was late, and the sun was down, but the sky was still lit a ghostly yellow from the lights of the city reflecting on the clouds. Cars drove past him at their usual hurried paces. The shops in the city seemed to be perpetually open for business, which might explain the poor attitudes of the workers.

There were two stops Dib had to make before going home. First he needed a new shirt for his job; second he had to hit up Bloaty's Pizza for their dinner.

The clothing store was small and grungey looking. Much of the clothes seemed second hand and in dire need of washing. Overall it was not a place Dib would normally shop but it was cheap and since the shirts would be ruined at work anyway there was no point in going all out. In around 5 minutes Dib had found three shirts and a pair of slacks; he headed to the checkout.

On the way to the front of the store Dib saw a blast from his past. An old black trenchcoat; sized for a child between 12 and 15 years of age. Dib smiled and looked at the price tag. With it going for $1.53 he considered buying it for old times sake but in the end walked away without it. The patents in their Dad's name only gave them so much; enough to keep the house. All of the money Dib made at work was needed for other things.

"Oh well..." He went up to the register, paid, then headed off for Bloaty's.

XXX

"So did work suck?" In her own way, Gaz really was trying to be nice.

"Nah. It wasn't too bad." The two of them sat in silence as they ate their pizza. "Oh yeah!" Dib said after taking a sip from his soda, "I forgot to tell you what I saw at ThredBaren when I went to get shirts for work. It was a black trenchcoat " Gaz gave him her classic dubious expression, which wasn't much of an expression at all since she was so focused on her pizza. "No really. It was just there on the discount rack. Kinda brings back old memories huh?"

"If you mean of when you were crazy and alien obsessed? Then yes." Gaz sighed and lowered her pizza. "Sorry... I didn't mean that."

Dib smiled. "I know." He was only 2 years older than her but since she was only 16 when their Dad died, Dib had taken on the role of caretaker, doing whatever he had to to keep what they had left of a family together. "So what have you got going on tomorrow?"

"I'm going to that gamers convention remember? I've only reminded you about it 23 times already. What to I have to do? Tape the calander to your head?"

"Sorry just forgot again." Dib took another slice of pizza. "There's a tournament right? So you'll end up out late?"

Gaz sighed. "Not just late. The tournament goes all night. I won't be back till Sunday afternoon if I'm lucky." Gaz had been practicing for this tournament for weeks. She looked over at her Game Slave 5, deciding whether or not to start playing it. She glanced at Dib. "So what will you be doing all weekend?" Even though Dib had given up his paranormal exploits after their father's death, Gaz always seemed worried he might get back into it and end up in another stupid and dangerous situation.

"I'll probably hang out at the library in the morning and go jogging later. After that... Who knows?" He shrugged. They ate in silence again. When they were full the leftovers went to the fridge and the plates into the dishwasher. They said their good nights and went to bed. When Dib walked past Gaz's room on the way to his own, he heard the same muffled sobs that he heard every night. Gaz hadn't cried at their Dad's funeral.

XXX

Saturday morning came and went. The library was uninteresting as usual, the jog in the park left him feeling hot and sweaty, yet oddly refreshed. He said hi to a few people he knew, including Zita, and old classmate and long time friend, who was out shopping for an anniversary gift for her boyfriend. Dib graciously gave her his opinion on two ties as she held them up in front of that small specialty store.

"Thanks Dib! You were a huge help. M is going to love it!" She gave him a quick hug then hurried off; Dib waved stupidly after her. He thought about how he had missed his chance to ask her out back in high school.

Shaking his head he walked back through the park.

With nothing else to accomplish, Dib took a break and sat down on a bench. The fresh air and the warm sun on his face made him feel drowsy. Before long, Dib was fast asleep.

XXX

Memories from his past training flooded Zim's mind as his tiny pod hit the planet's upper atmosphere. Luck was on his side as the landing controls were not locked liked steering and communications. From his training back on Irk, Zim was able to go through the atmospheric approach without really having to think about it. Had he thought about it, he might have decided to simply crash into the planet and end his existance.

The outer casing of the tiny escape pod heated as it passed through the stratosphere. Shaking from the turbulence, it became painfully obvious that the little ship was never meant for planetary landings.

XXX

Back in the park, a squirrel scurried over the branches of a tree, bringing a nut back to his hideyhole for his illegitimate chipmunk. Unfortunately he stumbled on a lose piece of bark and dropped his acorn, right onto Dib's head.

Dib awoke with a start. Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes as his brain tried to fully process where he was. _Oh right the park…_ His watch showed that it was 5:56. _What!?_ He jumped off the bench. "How did I sleep so long?" he wasn't really talking to anyone in particular as he said this. The sky was dark with cumuli nimbus clouds. It was likely to begin raining any second. Dib turned on his heal and headed for home.

On his way past Thredbaren Clothing Store, he noticed a worker walking out with a pile of clothing. On the very top of the pile was the little black trench coat he had seen earlier. Dib ran up to the guy who's nametag read '_McFelon'_ and asked what was being done with that clothing.

"Oh this junk?" McFelon spoke in a monotone voice. "Well no one has bought it for so long that we're just throwing it out."

"Throwing it out? All of it?"

"That's what my boss told me to do." McFelon continued on his trek to the dumpster.

"Hang on a second!" Dib dug his hand into his pocket. "If it's just going to be thrown out, can you let me buy that trench coat first?" He switched hands and checked his other pocket for his wallet.

McFelon shrugged, "Sure whatever." He set the pile down beside the dumpster and picked the trench coat off the top. "There a problem?"

Dib was digging through his pockets. "Umm… I may have lost my wallet. Can you hold it for me while I go back to the park to look for it?"

"We close in 15 minutes dude. If you want it so bad just take it."

Dib rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "I don't know… I'd really rather pay for it." McFelon raised an eyebrow; he really didn't care if this guy took the trench coat or not. "It's fine. I'll run to the park and find my wallet then come back and buy it." Dib took off running. "Just hold it for me until then!" He yelled.

McFelon shrugged then dumped the coat back onto the pile in front of the dumpster.

XXX

"Aww ComeOn!" Did swore as the rain changed from a drizzle to a downpour. He ran for shelter under a nearby tree. His wallet was nowhere in sight, and he had been searching for over an hour. "Just great… That had this week's paycheck in it…" He leaned back, resting his head on the smooth bark of the tree.

For a time, he closed his eyes and just listened to the sound of the rain. From overhead, a rushing sound similar to a plane, grew louder and louder. _What is that?_ Dib opened his eyes in time to see the clouds above split; a fiery comet shooting out of their center.

"WHAT THE!?"

Dib dove to the ground as the comet shot over head. The ground rumbled and shook as the fireball came crashing down through the trees only a few hundred feet from Dib's position. The birds that had taken shelter from the rain burst out from the trees, fleeing from the dangerous new object.

Unlike the birds, Dib ran towards the fireball that was slowly being extinguished by the rain.

"What the heck is this?" he wondered aloud.

The outer coating of the ship had begun to melt but the main structure remained in its perfectly spherical shape. The metal groaned under the strain of rapid cooling caused by the rain. Dib pushed his soaking wet hair up out of his face trying to figure out what exactly he was looking at.

As the metal cooled, Dib could see the outer hull was dull pinky-grey. The object was almost perfectly spherical except for the giant chunk taken out of one side. Looking into the ship Dib couldn't keep his excitement from swelling up in his chest. Sparks flew, and everything looked damaged, but the technology Dib saw inside that ship would have even amazed his dad.

He was about to take a closer look when he heard a low moan coming from under the ship. Getting onto his hands and knees, Dib looked under one of the broken panels that had curled outward. A small figure lay beneath the metal; whatever it was looked to be unconscious. Dib carefully reached his dripping hand under the sheet, to try and free the creature.

Barely conscious, Zim yelped in pain as something seared his skin. It was like his hand was being held in a vat of acid; he couldn't pull away. The grip around his wrist tightened when he struggled.

"No!" He yelled. "Let me go! That hurts!" White hot pain blurred his vision.

Dib felt the creature struggling in his grip. "It's okay! I'm not going to hurt you." He spoke calmly, trying to communicate a feeling of safety through the tone of his voice. It yelled something at him that he realized might be a language. "We have to get you out of there. The rain might flood the ditch." Even as he spoke, a small stream was forming by his side and running down into the hole.

Zim yelled out as the acid flooded down by his feet. _Make it stop__…_

The creature yelled out again, and this time Dib knew why. He could see the smoke rising and he could smell the burning flesh. _I gotta get it out of there! Somehow the water must be hurting it!_ Quickly he laid flat on his stomach and reached in with both hands. The alien still fought him but its efforts became weak when it was pulled out and the full force of the rain hit it's face.

_Irk… please just let me die! Make the pain go away!_ Zim's vision went black as the acid ran over his face.

Dib knew his coat was wet but for now it was better than just being right out in the rain. He tucked his new bundle under his shirt and zipped up his coat. Supporting it's body and head with his arms. Dib ran as fast as he could headed for home.


	3. First Meetings

_**A/N: **Really, I have never written a story like this before. I've never done out of character On purpose... but I kind of like it. Thinking of ways to bring parts of the original IZ universe into my AU is a challenge. _

_I'm still amazed by the number of people who say they love this story. I really hope you all like this chapter. I think it's really cute. Reviews would make me even happier than this story is so far. Lots of reviews means I work faster and maybe will get far on this story before I hit writers block (like I have with every story so far)._

_Finally on my work weekend! So I can work on chapter 4 (I've had chapter 3 done for days now). Chances are chapters will begin coming slower now. Setting up the story is easy; continuing it is hard (finishing is easy again). Besides I have other stories to work on as well. Hopefully when I finish I Forgot How to Fight You then I won't be so far spread. _

_Well anyway Enjoy and Review!_

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**Chapter 3 – First Meeting**

The first thing Zim became aware of was the throbbing all over his body. He could feel his PAK running checks on his physical functions, making sure everything was working right. An alert was sounding in his mind telling him that his PAK was running low on energy.

_Must have been from healing…_

Slowly he opened his eyes. The room around him was dark but that didn't hinder his eyesight in the slightest. His neck ached as he turned his head. Looking around, the room was strange. The walls looked to be made of some sort of plaster rather than standard glactium alloy. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing; it made the room feel… warmer.

Zim chanced sitting up. It was hard and his PAK loudly suggested hibernation again. Zim pushed back the suggestion. He couldn't sleep until he knew where he was.

Sitting on the bed, Zim could now see the floor. It was made of some fibrous material from the looks of it. Clothing lay scattered around, a pile of it in the corner. There were a few other pieces of furniture, a desk and chair, a dresser, a mountain of what looked like computer parts, and a small table directly beside the bed.

Zim stared at the table. On top of it was some sort of tall object with a glass bulb sitting on top, possibly a primitive light fixture, and a book with strange writing on it. He picked up the book and flipped through it. He couldn't understand the strange shapes that must have been writing, but he looked over it none-the-less. All he needed would be to hear the language spoken and his PAK would figure out the rest.

"I'm telling you Gaz, it's a REAL alien!" The voice was muffled as it came through the door, not enough for a vocal analysis. He would have to get closer. Slowly and with a fair bit of painful effort, Zim extended his PAK legs to maneuver himself off of the high bed, but with so little power left his PAK only managed to get him over the floor before the legs shut down and he dropped 3 feet through the air.

"oww…" Zim let out a low moan as he stood and made his way to the door. It was obvious what the door was because it was different than the rest of the wall, even if it didn't look like a typical door. Zim stood in front of it waiting for it to slide open. The panel didn't move. He raised his arms and waved them trying to figure out where the motion sensor was, but to no avail. "Dookie… now what?" His eyes scanned the door until they stopped on a small gold orb protruding from the panel. A handle?

Even standing on his toes, Zim was too short to reach the nob. He could hear the voice still talking on the other side of the wall. _Have to get out there somehow…_ he thought as he searched the room. The chair! It was big and heavy, and it took all of Zim's strength to move it over the carpet, but finally by standing on it he was able to open the door.

"They're the _Swollen _Eyeballs… and No Gaz, I'm not calling them. I can't… Whatever it is, is hurt really badly. ….. Huh? No, it's sleeping upstairs on my bed at the moment. I tried to bandage its wounds but… Yes Gaz of course I know how to treat wounds…"

The hallway was bright and hurt Zim's eyes until they had adjusted. The voice was coming from his left, down a flight of stairs. With his PAK energy low, running into an enemy in a narrow corridor could be fatal; for all the bad that training on Irk had done him, he did learn how to best keep himself alive.

_Not that I should bother…_

Zim shook his head trying to keep the voices away. He could worry about that another time.

"Don't worry. I'm just planning to wait until it wakes up. Then… I dun know… I'll have to figure out some way to communicate with it." Zim leaned his antennae forward concentrating on the voice. There was a minute of silence before it spoke again. "Gaz… I'm okay. I'm safe, I promise." It sounded like he was only hearing half of a conversation; he still did not understand the alien language but his PAK was currently working on that.

"Okay, Gaz. … Uhuh… Yeah me too. Okay I'll call you after it's woken up. Good luck with your next match. … Yeah… bye." Dib sighed as he hung up the phone. He ran a hand through his hair wondering what the heck he was going to do. Gaz didn't sound all that thrilled about having an extra-terrestrial being sleeping in their house. "It's not like I could just leave it there…" he said trying to re-confirm his decision to bring the alien home. He slumped down on the couch, just staring off through the ceiling.

A small noise made him look down. "Holy!" Dib leapt to his feet after he saw the creature standing at the bottom of the stairs, just watching him. "I didn't realize you were awake. Are you okay? Does it hurt anywhere?" In his excitement, Dib took a step forward. The tiny alien flinched and retreated a few steps. Dib stopped.

"No.. It's okay… Don't be scared. I won't hurt you." He took another smaller step forward, again the alien recoiled.

The alien kept walking towards him and Zim was starting to get anxious. _It's so tall…_ Back on Irk, Tallers rarely cared about anyone that was shorter than themselves, and the only ones taller were other Tallers and the Tallest. If you were a smeet that accidently bumped into one of them, you didn't get away without them giving a painful reminder that they were 'better'.

Dib took a step back. _Poor thing must be so scared…_ Without turning his back on the alien, but without looking like he was obviously trying to not turn his back, Dib moved back to the couch and sat down. "I know this must be scary for you. I mean I just took you out of your ship and brought you to my home. I'd probably be scared too if I was you, but I _promise _that you aren't in any danger here. I just want to help. Although you probably don't understand a word I'm saying do you?" Dib slumped his head into his hands with a groan of annoyance. This was going to be harder than he thought.

"Safe?"

Dib lifted his head and looked around the room until he realized that those words could only have come from the alien. "Did you just speak English?"

The alien was glancing around the room. "If that's what this language is called."

Dib leaned forward trying to not show his obvious excitement and fascination. "But how?" he asked. The alien itched at the bandages on its head but didn't respond. Even though its facial expression remained neutral, Dib did notice its small antennae press closer to its head. _Like a cat's ears!_ If they're anything alike then it lowering them means either nervous or angry… Guess I should try a different question. "Where are you from?"

"Irk."

"That's your planet's name?" The alien nodded. "Are there other alien species?" One antenna went up the other went down…_What's that mean? Could it be like raising an eyebrow? I guess that was a dumb question._ The little alien confirmed his thoughts.

"Of course there are. Why wouldn't there be?" Both his antennae went down slightly as if thinking or confused.

_This is awesome! I can read his emotions like a book but his facial expression barely even changes! _Dib was having the time of his life and all he was doing was playing Twenty Questions with a small green alien. "Oh right! How are your burns? Do they hurt?" The alien stared at him for a second then looked down at the bandages on his arms and legs.

"A bit, but not enough to keep me from moving. Irkens heal fast."

"Irkens from Irk. Cool!" Dib let out a small squeal of delight. As a kid he would have done anything to capture an alien, and now here he was, having a conversation with one _in his Living Room!_ An obvious question crossed his mind, "So what are you doing on Earth?"

"Earth is your planet's name?"

Dib nodded. His excitement turned into confusion as the alien's antennae dropped flat against his head, even curving down in the back. _Fear? _The alien's tiny hands balled into fists at his sides.

"I'm here by accident. I was lost and I happened to come upon your planet where I crashed." His eyes were looking down and to the right.

_But in a human that means they're lying… Maybe what he said isn't true? _"Will you try to go back?" The aliens stood straight up in surprise, its eyes seemed to lose focus and its small body started to shake.

_Go back...?_ Red and Purple's laughing faces flashed in front of his eyes. Zim froze. He could see them there.

_'Little Serazime actually came back. Whats the matter Zimmy? couldn't cut it without help from the teachers?'_

_'I'm surprised the little weakling made it back alive at all!'_

Zim's hands went to his antennae trying to block out their voices. _No.. get away... _he felt his body being shaken, hard. _No..! Leave me alone!_

"Hey! Can you hear me!? Snap out of it! Are you okay?! HEY!"

Zim was startled out of his mind. He looked up at the alien who's face was a foot from his own. He took a step back. "Yeah... I'm fine." The alien didn't seem to believe him but didn't press it further.

"Well your ship was pretty damaged. Not to mention with all the damage it caused, the police are bound to find it before we can get back there. It looks like you will be on Earth for awhile so you're welcome to stay here." The aliens antennae lowered slightly and it looked away, thinking. "it's just me and my sister living in this house, so there's some extra rooms."

"Thank you."

Dib nodded. He moved toward the stairs. "Here I'll show you to the spare room. Oh!" Dib turned back and squatted so he was on eye level with the tiny alien. "My name is Dib. What's yours?"

"Zim"

Dib smiled at him. "Well nice to meet you Zim." Dib helped Zim up the stairs and gave him a tour of the house.

XXX

The two of them stayed up late into the night, and into the early morning, talking about a wide array of topics. Dib quickly learned that all questions about Zim's life on Irk were off-limits, so instead he did his best to answer any questions Zim had about Earth. And boy did Zim have a lot of questions. The conversation started with why there was acid falling from the sky, and had gone all the way to what's there to eat here.

As soon as Zim explained that he needed to eat something so his PAK could recharge, Dib dug out everything they had in the cabinets, which in all honesty wasn't a whole lot.

"What kinds of food did you have on Irk?"

Zim thought about it for a moment. "Well I'm not entirely sure if the translation is right but we ate sugary snacks, carbony drinks, and rings of dough."

"Rings of dough? You mean Doughnuts?" Dib asked; Zim just shrugged unsure how the combination of the words 'dough' and 'nuts' changed their meanings. "Well," Dib suggested, "There is a gas station down the street that might have some." The words with dual meanings were also confusing to Zim.

"A stink station?"

"Huh? Oh..." This was not the first time that Zim has misunderstood a word. "It's a place to buy fuel for vehicals."

"Oh. May we go there. I'm very in need of nourishment."

"Sure we can just..." Dib took a second look at who he was talking to. "Oh."

"What?"

"Well actually humans aren't accustomed to seeing aliens walking around. Maybe I should just go and bring something back for you."

"But how will you know whether or not I can eat it?"

Zim had a point. They had previously tested the majority of the contents of the fridge and had discovered that much of the food that Dib and Gaz lived on was poison to Zim. The bologna had actually even fused to Zims hand.

"We'll have to make you a disguise then I suppose." An idea popped into Dibs head and he rushed upstairs to his sisters room. He came down with the hair from a stuffed doll and some of the dolls clothes. It was a small pink dress with thin black stripes and light pink triangle-shaped sleeves; Dib took it off of a female doll, but Zim would probably never know the difference.

Going to the kitchen, Dib grabbed a bottle of glue. When he went back in the living room he tossed the dress and the doll's black boots to Zim. "Put those on."

Zim wasn't sure what to make of the pink thing. He looked down at his grey smeet's uniform. Well if this is what hyoomans wear. He went to the dookie room to change. When he came back Dib was waiting for him with a newly constructed black wig, and a set of blue-eye contact lenses that he had gotten for a meeting with the Swollen Eyeballs to somehow hide his identity.

"You might want to make sure the salien doesn't burn you first," Dib advised. Zim stuck his finger in the liquid but it didn't hurt, so Dib showed him how to put them in. "There!" Dib said proudly, "Other than the green skin, lack of nose or ears, and the zipper-like teeth you look just like a human child.

Zim studied his appearance in the mirror; he hardly recognized himself. Maybe even Red and Purple wouldn't recognize him. ...no... They definitely would. Then they would probably hurt him and call him a traitor to their race. Zim sighed.

"What's wrong? Don't you like it?"

Zim saw Dib's worried face. "It is fine if you say no one will know. I really am hungry. Can we go now?" Dib noticed a quiver in Zim's voice but let it pass, nodding with a smile.

Dib locked the door on the way out, and they left to see what kinds of earth food would not upset Zim's squeedlyspooch.


	4. Living with a Monster

_**A/N: **__So this chapter is about 300 words shorter than the others. I was going to type more but then I realized it would be spoilers. It took me a while to write this chapter because of work and having other stuff I wanted to do this weekend, and I might not get back to writing for a week or more. Depends on my mood, but with a 2 hour commute for an 8 hour work day... you can guess how my mood is after work. _

_Well anyway! I love the reviews and really hope for more. Again more reviews makes me happy which makes me more inclined to work on the story._

_Enjoy!_

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**Chapter 4 – Living with a Monster**

Dib walked next to Zim, looking down on the black wig he had constructed, while Zim happily munched on a large glazed doughnut. Dib carried the box with 2 dozen more of them. Actually it was less than 2 dozen now since Zim had already eaten five. Dib was amazed at how much the Irken could eat considering his head only reached Dib's knees.

"So Zim," Dib said, "What would you like to do today?" It was already 5am the day after Dib had found him.

Zim popped the remaining half a doughnut in his mouth savoring the sugary goodness. "I don't know," he said flatly. He raised his hand to Dib, "Another!" Dib laughed. Zim's face was still that same neutral expression with only the slightest of smiles, but his antennae stood straight up; happily he grabbed the next doughnut from Dib and took a huge bite.

They were less than a block from Dib's house now.

"Well, I could show you around town or we can go see what's happened to your ship." Dib was sort of hoping for the latter; he wanted to see how such a small pod could get across the universe. He frowned when Zim shook his head.

"That pod is useless," he told him. "It doesn't have the capabilities for planetary departures." Zim's mind wandered to the moment the escape pod departed the Massive. He could see Skoodge's face through the hatch window with that same look of pity.

"Zim?"

Zim's attention snapped back. "Huh? What?"

Dib looked down at the smeet with worry written on his face. "I asked how many more of these doughnuts you're going to eat?"

Zim looked down at the half a ring in his hand, Skoodge's face still in his mind. "I'm not feeling very hungry anymore." He said, handing the half back up to Dib to put in the box. "It doesn't really matter what we do tomorrow." Zim looked down on the bandages on his hands, "although my PAK may hold me in hibernation for much of tomorrow, in order to finish repairs." The rest of the way back to the house was spent with Zim explaining what his PAK actually was, in as close a translation as the English language allowed.

"That's fascinating." Dib had been watching the Irken the whole way home. Now that they were at the front walk of the house, he looked up at the door while digging out his keys. He dropped his keys. "Uh oh…"

Zim stopped walking as Dib did. He looked up at the human to see a terrified look in his eyes. Confused, Zim followed his gaze to the front stoop. There sat another human; this one with purple hair. It looked to be female like the woman at the gas station, but he wasn't entirely sure. It was hard to tell humans apart. The purple-haired human looked up.

Dib felt a cold shiver run up his spine when Gaz's eyes narrowed on him. _She must not have brought her key with to the tournament… How long has she been sitting here? Oh crap she doesn't look happy…_ "Gaz… I can explain."

"Open… the door." Venom dripped from her voice. Dib did as he was commanded, with Zim following behind him. While Dib is fumbling with his keys Zim greeted Gaz, "Hello nice human female," with a huge smile on his face.

Gaz glared down at him. "What makes you think I'm nice?"

Zim's smile faltered but he recovered quickly enough, "Well the other human female at the refueling station was nice..." In reality half the doughnuts they had brought home were given free of charge by the woman working the register who had been shocked to hear that such a small child could have a deadly skin condition like the one Zim supposedly had, which Dib made up a vague name for.

Zim's antennae dropped as Gaz silently glared at him. He ducked his head and hid behind Dib's leg.

As soon as the door was unlocked, Gaz stuck her hand in Dib's face and shoved him out of the way. She stormed inside mumbling under her breath.

"This female was your sister?" Zim asked, not really understanding the meaning of the word 'sister' but thinking it had something to do with a demon that lives in your house.

Dib voice was failing him; he was too busy remembering what he had done to her dolls in order to make Zim's wig. _I'm dead…_ He quickly ran in after Gaz trying to stop her before she made it to her room. Zim watched Dib dash inside then walked in himself; he went and sat down on the couch. His antennae twitched when he heard something shatter against the wall upstairs. Nervously he looked towards the stairs.

In the hallway outside Gaz's room, Dib just barely managed to dodge the jar full of lizard eyeballs that Gaz had thrown at him upon seeing the state of her room. Four dolls, with choppy black patches of cut raggedy hair poking from their heads, lay scattered in the middle of the grey carpet. A few of them that were part of Gaz's security system had their arms or legs broken. One of them lay there without any clothing on.

"WHAT DID YOU DO!?" Gaz rarely yelled but when she did it was the most terrifying thing on earth. Dib could practically see the flames of hell opening up behind her.

"It was to make Zim a disguise!? He needed food so I…"

"YOU AND YOUR STUPID OBSESSION! JUST WHEN YOU FINALLY START ACTING NORMAL THAT THING COMES AND RUINS IT!"

"Gaz I…"

"SHUT UP! YOU FREAK! I HATE YOU!" Gaz got quiet suddenly and her rage waned slightly. She shook her head. Her voice was more it's usual angry tone when next she spoke. "If you ever come into my room again, you and that stupid alien will face a death so horrible that you won't have bodies left for anyone to find." Dib swallowed hard. Gaz turned to her room and slammed the door in his face.

Dib remained in the hall for a moment as the tension drained from his body. He got seriously lucky to be able to walk away from that. If anything good came from his father's death it was Gaz's newfound self-restraint. His legs felt like jelly as he walked downstairs.

"Sorry you had to hear that. Guess I got carried away…?" Dib looked around the family room. "Zim?" The little alien was nowhere in sight. Dib went and checked the kitchen, and the bathroom, and the basement, but he couldn't find him. "Zim? Where'd you go? ZIM?"

_Tap Tap_ _Tap, _a small sound of metal on wood

"Huh?"

XXX

_"YOU'RE A FREAK ZIM! I HATE YOU AND ALL THE CRAP I'M FORCED TO DEAL WITH BECAUSE OF YOU!" Larb threw one of his school books at Zim's head. Zim was hit right between the antennae and the force smashed his face into the desk. _

_Larb was on one of his rages again. _

_"I don't get why I'm forced to room with you while Alexovich gets his own room! You never keep your stuff clean. You're always crying about something. You can't even get your homework done properly and then the teachers tell me to help you. I mean Why Should I!?" Larb kicked his chair over. _

_Zim remained sitting at his desk. His eyes watered with the pain from the growing lump on his head. He had to hide his hands under his desk so that Larb wouldn't see them shaking. Larb noticed anyway when Zim's antennae started shaking as well. _

_"Oh you pathetic little runt! Do you ever stop crying!? I swear if you tell anyone about this I'll make sure everyone knows just how damaged of a stupid little defect you are!" Larb stormed to the door, which slid open for him. Zim could hear him exchange a casual greeting with Tak; from his voice, no one would have ever known he had been angry only a few seconds ago. _

_Once Tak was safely out of earshot Larb poked his head back in the door. "If you're still crying by the time I get back I'll go straight to Taller Spork and report you." he declared. _

"Zim?"

_Zim looked ahead right though his desk. His antennae shook with fear and tears began to run down his cheeks. Zim's mind ran over the protocol for disconnecting a PAK. It would be so easy. Just 10 minutes…_

"Can you hear me? Zim?"

Zim's eyes barely understood what he was seeing. Looking up, he dazedly stared into Dib's face. _Oh right… I'm on earth…_

Dib stared at Zim with unease. The smeet had been shaking uncontrollably and hadn't responded to his words for the past two minutes. It was as if, while his body sat in that closet, his mind had been somewhere else entirely. Dib smiled kindly when Zim finally looked up at him. "Maybe you're tired. Let's get you up to bed." Zim said nothing. Dib carefully lifted the Irken and carried him out of the closet.

Zim was asleep before Dib even reached the top of the stairs.

XXX

Cheerful rays of sunlight passed through the window, into the room, and shone bright on Zim's face. Zim awoke slowly as the claws of a nightmare tried to keep its hold on him. He had to detangle himself from the blankets, which were wound tightly around him from all the tossing and turning he did during the night.

Despite his far-from-restful sleep , Zim felt better than he had in months. His body wasn't as tired, and his PAK wasn't nagging him about rest or repairs. The earth sun was bright on his eyes, and since he couldn't reach the curtains, he went downstairs to look for Dib.

Dib wasn't around, so Zim decided to just help himself to the doughnuts.

Zim was sitting up on the table munching away at his third doughnut, when Gaz walked into the room. Zim eyed her nervously, but she said nothing; she didn't even look at him. Although, it wasn't so much _she didn't_ as it was _she wouldn't_.

Gaz couldn't help but feel herself growing more and more annoyed just knowing that That Creature was in the house. Dib had finally given up all of that dangerous stuff he used to do as a kid; now this thing was going to ruin it all and put Dib in more danger again.

Of course none of these thoughts showed up on her face. Her squinty eyes held no emotion whatsoever as she walked to the fridge to get some pizza. She paused when she got to the fridge; there was a note on the door. Dib's sloppy handwriting was scrawled across the sticky note.

_Gaz, I got called  
into work. Won't  
be back till late.  
Keep an eye on  
Zim for me would  
ya? ~Dib_

Gaz stared at the note wondering if she could get away with chucking the alien off the roof, but decided that doing so would probably make Dib mad; not that she was really afraid of that. Instead she crumpled up the note and ate it. _No note, no evidence. I never saw it. _She took her pizza and went back up to her room.

Zim sat eating for a while, until he decided his Squeedlyspooch was sufficiently filled. He curiously looked around the kitchen wondering what to do next. Dib still hadn't come, so Zim decided he would have to occupy himself; he certainly wasn't going to ask the sister-monster upstairs to keep him company._ Why would she even want to?_

Zim shook his head trying to rid himself of the voice.

With the help of his PAK legs, he climbed off the table and headed for the living room. There was a large TV screen on the wall. Zim went up to it, planning to plug his PAK cord in and watch something, but he found there was no outlet for it. He looked over the box trying to find some way to control it. Eventually he gave up and sat down on the couch.

The moment his tiny behind touched the sofa, the TV turned on. Zim's eyes went wide with amazement and confusion. He bounced himself up and down; the TV turned off then back on. "Ooo." Zim shifted from side to side and the picture on the screen of some strange looking earth dog changed into what was a monkey but Zim really had never seen to recognize it. He wiggled his butt again and the picture changed again; this time to a dark skinned human wearing a grey suit, similar to a smeet's uniform. When the human said the word "aliens" Zim happily decided to continue watching, curious if the human knew of the Irken Empire.

It turns out he didn't, but the show was interesting none-the-less. Zim had no idea that Earth had vampire pizza that was so similar to the Greasy-face people of Foodcortia.

The show was nearing its end when Zim feels as if someone is watching him. He turns around to find the Sister-monster looking very angry. Zim involuntarily shuddered. Her dark eyes bore into him.

Gaz walked up to Zim and shoved him off the couch, pulling the remote control out from under the cushion he was on and turning the TV off. She stared at the TV for a second then turned her eyes to Zim.

"If you ever turn that show on again, if you even come close to dragging Dib back into that crazy world. I will make you suffer in a way you've never suffered before, to a point that you'll wish you were dead." She didn't even wait to see if the Irken understood her warning before throwing the remote at his head and stormed upstairs.

Zim barely dodged the remote, which was thrown so hard and fast that it pierced the fabric of the couch and a spot of stuffing came out of the rip. He couldn't move, and his antennae shook. That stare… looked exactly like the way Red stared at him, short of having full red eyes.

Zim closed his eyes and covered them with his hands, trying to keep those eyes out of sight. It didn't work. Purple's eyes soon joined them. Red and Purple laughed as Gaz threw things at Zim.

_"Defective little Zim can't even fight a female."  
"What a failure!"_

_Gaz yelled at him as more things shattered against the wall. _

A door upstairs slammed shut. Zim's eyes bolted open in a panic. Out of fear that she might come downstairs again, Zim rushed through the only doorway he had never seen Dib and Gaz never use. The door to the basement lab.

XXX

Zim sat shivering in the dark basement for some time, though he had long since lost track of it, when through his closed eyelids he could see something bright shining in his face. Slowly he opened his eyes. Two blue circles stared back at him.

"HI THERE!"


	5. Mechanical Problems

_**A/N: **__Hey guys. This past week has been heck to get myself to write (for any and all of my stories). Work has me so tired by the time I get home that all I want to do is play some online games, talk to friends and relax. Writing is relaxing but it requires more thinking than sleep does. _

_Anyway you should all thank The Drone for giving me the brilliant idea of bring Gir into the story. I hadn't even considered it but now the possibilities are endless! I have so many plans for all the characters. I can't wait to work more on it. (of course I say that now before I've gone to work and just after I finished a chapter._

_This chapter is really cute by the way. I hope you all like it. Leave Reviews!_

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**Chapter 5 – Mechanical Problems**

Dib let out a heavy sigh as he walked through the door; dealing with stupid people at his job always tired him out. Gaz was sitting on the couch playing her GS5. Dib dropped off a pizza, and a bag of doughnuts on the table in front of her then walked to the kitchen.

"Zim, dinner time." But Zim wasn't in the kitchen so he went to yell up the stairs. "Ziiim! I got doughnuts." There was still no response. Reluctant to wear out his tired legs any further, Dib headed up the stairs, and knocked on the guest room door. "Zim, I got doughnuts. You hungry? …. Zim?" Dib pushed the door open to find the room empty.

From halfway down the stairs, Dib stared at the back of Gaz's head as she worked her way to a second slice of pizza. "Hey Gaz, where's Zim?"

"I don't know."

Dib raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean 'you don't know'? I asked you to watch him." Gaz just shrugged. Dib rushed to check all the rooms, the backyard and the garage. Zim was nowhere. He ran back into the living room and grabbed the phone.

"What are you doing?" Gaz asked.

"Calling the police. Zim could be lost somewhere. It's supposed to rain tonight. If we don't find him he could be seriously hurt." Dib started dialing 9-1-1.

Gaz bit into her pizza and mumbled out the corner of her mouth, "Oh yeah cause telling the police you lost an alien is not crazy at all." Dib paused and looked at his sister. She was intent on her pizza. Dib was about to respond when something sounding like a long siren began wailing.

"What is that?" Dib and Gaz both looked around curiously. As the sound got louder, Dib could tell it was someone yelling.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH HHHHHH!" Zim burst from the basement, the door opening so fast that it slammed into the wall with a crash. He ran and hid behind Dib's leg.

"What the!?" Dib yelled out as he nearly lost his balance.

Smoke poured out of the basement along with the yeowl of a cat. "MEEEEOOOOOOWWWW!" Strange thing about this meow was that it was insanely high pitched and was accompanied with a slight sound of grating metal.

"Oh no…" Gaz smacked her forehead. "Him again…"

It was then that Dib realized what was coming up the stairs. He dove to the ground just in time for a green dog, propelled by two small rocket boosters, to soar right through the air where his head had been. The dog smashed into the wall and blasted straight through it, leaving a gaping hole looking out into the neighbor's newly smashed windows.

Dib poked his head out the hole, looking at the sky, while Gaz went and locked the front door.

"That's not gonna stop it." Dib pointed out.

Gaz grumbled that she already knew that. She touched her hand to the wall right above the light switch. A panel slid open revealing a large red button. For a moment, Zim felt as afraid of the button as he had the rocket dog that chased him up the stairs. He was right to be.

Gaz pressed the button and all hell broke loose.

Dib pressed his hands to his ears, Zim did the same to his antennae, as a wailing siren vibrated the air around them. A small white orb emerged from the wall to scan the contents of the room. "_Warning!" _it said. "_Dib and Gaz loctated. Unauthorized Tissue sample present." _

Zim was seeing double from the shaking of the house, when a laser extended from the wall and pointed straight at him. The laser fired. Zim barely dodged. More shots were fired. If his antennae hadn't been ringing, Zim might have heard Red's psychotic laughter accompanying the _PEW PEW _of the laser.

Zim leapt behind the couch as more lasers joined the target practice. He dodged left and right, not even having enough time to be grateful for all that extra practice at Dodgezlorp. Just as the lasers got him trapped in a corner, Zim was shoved out of the way by Dib, who quickly ran to Gaz and pressed the red button again.

"WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH YOU?! YOU COULD HAVE KILLED US!"

Gaz's face remained emotionless. "The system is programed to not target you or me, remember? That's how Dad made it."

Dib's face was red with fury, which was a rare occurrence for him, "AND WHAT ABOUT ZIM HUH!? DID YOU EVER THINK OF HIM!?"

Gaz raised an eyebrow, as close as she ever got to a shocked expression. In truth, she hadn't even considered Zim. She'd forgotten completely about the one annoyance in the face of the other. She was about to say this when the door was knocked right off its hinges and the green dog slammed into Dib's chest, lifting him off the ground and smashing them both into the very back wall.

When the grey fuzz faded into the shapes of the living room again, Dib breathed a sharp painful breath; any more painful and he would have sworn he had a broken rib or two. The green dog was wiggling around in his lap.

"Ugh…" Dib coughed. "Hey there Gir.."

The dog jumped up on two legs and wiggled its nubby arms. "I Missed Yewww BigHead!" it squealed happily.

Dib tried to push the dog off his lap but it wouldn't budge. "Right… Gir can you get off of me… please?" The dog didn't move.

"It was dark and scary down there! I GOT CHASED BY A TACO!" Contrary to what you might think, the dog smiled and laughed as he made that last statement.

Zim peaked out from under the coffee table. The strange dog was regaling Dib with a highly unlikely story of a Waffle and Taco invasion. Curiously and cautiously, Zim inched out to where Dib was, and tugged on his sleeve. The green dog froze in his story to look at Zim. Gir and Zim stared at each other, until Gir jumped up screaming again. The dog leapt forward and latched onto Zim's head.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" Zim ran yelling; Gir giggled as he wiggled in the air holding onto Zim's antennae.

"Zim Stop!" Dib jumped up to try and grab Gir, "Zi… Zim… Hold.. HOLD STILL ALREADY!"

A small parade circled the living room. Zim led the group, his large pink eyes wide with panic matched the position of his antennae as he ran wildly flailing his arms. Next of course was gir; his eyes closed with his tongue hanging out of his mouth as he went from hysterical laughter to matching Zim's screams. Dib finished up the line, running with his arms outstretched, trying desperately to grab the small dog off of the alien's head. All in all it was a strange sight.

Of course Gaz found it more annoying than strange.

In one fluid movement, Gaz stepped forward, tripped Zim, elbowed Dib in the neck, and grabbed Gir by the ears.

Dib rubbed his throat coughing. He blinked a few tears from his eyes and looked up to see Gir running in the air, suspended by his two little black ears. "…Nice.." cough "work… Gaz."

Gaz lifted Gir to eye level , of course his eyes were closed and he was still running without going anywhere, then she turned and threw him at Dib's head, ripping one of Gir's ears in the process. Then, as was her pattern for the past two days, she stormed off to her room.

Dib sat up with his new headache. Gir sat on the floor smiling at him; silver metal glinted through the hole where the left ear used to be. Dib swore under his breath. "Gir… your suit is ripped." Gir just gave him a blank look. Something shifted under a nearby pile of books drawing Dib's attention.

Zim lifted himself out from under the fallen bookshelf. His PAK buzzed saying that his right arm and the tips of both his antennae were bruised. _What was that?_ he wondered, rubbing his head. He turned around to look where Dib was examining the dog's ear. It didn't look like the other earth dog he had seen during that trip to the fuel station. That dog was more fuzzy, it walked on four legs, was Not green, and Definitely didn't talk.

"Okay Gir," Dib sighed. "Take the suit off and lemme see if Gaz broke anything." He stood and went down into the basement to grab his tools, leaving Zim and Gir in the room alone.

The two stared at each other.

Gir smiled. "Hi Green!"

"uhh… Hi… Green dog."

The dog's eyes flashed red for a second. "Gir Reporting for duty," it said saluting him.

Zim squinted one eye and cocked an antenna curiously. "Gir? Does that stand for something?"

Gir rocked forward then back. "I don't know." He squeeled in excitement and started pounding his nubby fists into his head.

"You're going to break yourself if you do that." Dib came up the stairs with his tools. Setting them down next to him on the couch, he pointed to the table. "Gir, Sit."

Gir giggled psychotically. His little feet squeaked with every step, till he jumped up on the table. He didn't move while Dib turned him around and unzipped his doggy suit.

Zim saw a glint of silver.

_"What's that?" _

_"It's the robot that Red built." Skoodge rolled his eyes at the metal monstrosity. "He couldn't have made it any bigger if he had tried. I'm surprised it can even fit through the door."_

_Zim looked over at the silver and red robot. It's eyes glowed the same color as it's masters and was double in height. Zim shivered. Hopefully the teachers would confiscate the robot quickly. _

_"Hey Zim! You like my robot? You keep staring at it."_

_Uh oh! Zim turned away quickly. He could hear the footsteps of Red and the robot getting closer. Don't look… don't look…_

_"I'm talking to you Serazime! What's the matter? Scared of a little scrap metal?" Red snapped his fingers and the robot grabbed Zim's shirt and yanked him around so Zim had no choice but to look._

_"Leave him alone Red." Skoodge jumped up, his antennae low. _

_"Or what shorty?"_

_"Or I'll go tell Instructor Varshlez." _

_Red shrugged. "Okay sure. You go find him. Little Zimmy and I will wait here." _

_Out of the corner of his eye, Zim could see that Skoodge wasn't moving. Red laughed. Zim struggled to break the robot's grip but it was too strong. The robot started shaking him; it shook him until Zim felt sick. It stopped when Red commanded, then threw Zim against the wall, cracking the casing of Zim's PAK. _

_Zim slumped to the floor. _

"What's wrong with green boy?" Gir asked when he saw Zim fall.

Dib looked up and saw Zim twitching on the ground. "ZIM!"

XXX

"Feeling any better?" Dib was sitting by the bed when Zim awoke.

Zim didn't answer right away. His head hurt. He felt nauseous, and he thought he could hear a stale warning about damages. He reached his hand back and ran it over the casing of his PAK. No cracks. "I'm fine."

Dib wasn't convinced. "Sorry if Gir scared you. He's a project my Dad was working on. He's a little hyper but more or less harmless." He scratched his head. "I had deactivated him. I guess when you went down there it must have somehow woken him up."

"Gir is a robot?"

Dib nodded. "He was supposed to be called S.I.R. for Seriously Interesting Robot but he would only ever call himself GIR so my Dad gave up on him. We aren't really sure what the G stands for."

Zim hugged his knees and closed his eyes. Dib watched as Zim's antennae started to vibrate. _Does that happen when he's scared?_ Dib pulled out a small communicator. "Gir come to the guest room." Zim appeared to not have even heard.

Gir walked through the door a minute later, smiling with delight. He wasn't wearing his doggy suit anymore as Dib had yet to repair it. "I gave the pig some toquitos!" he announced, standing in front of Dib.

"The pig from next door?"

Gir nodded happily.

"uhh Okay then. Gir, this is Zim. He's a friend." Dib said, emphasizing the last word. Gir had not been programed to be nice to strangers, but then again he rarely followed his programing. "Zim, meet Gir." Dib put a hand gently on Zim's head, waking him up from whatever he had been thinking about.

Zim looked nervously at the robot. Gir smiled and waved, looking completely harmless.

Then a bug skittered across the floor. Gir's eyes turned red, along with his shoulder guards and chest plate, and a rather large and intimidating laser gun extended from his head. "INTRUDER!" he yelled then began zapping at the bug. The cockroach ran for its little buggy life.

By the time Dib managed to get Gir back to his blue eyed idiocy, there were scorch marks all over the floor as well as one very terrified Irken smeet.

"Stop it Gir! You're scaring Zim!" Dib yelled and pointed toward the door. "Out!"

Gir stared at Dib, then looked over to Zim. His antenna drooped and he looked sad for a moment. Walking up to the bed where Zim was hidden under the covers. The top of his head opened up and Gir reached in, rummaging around for something. He pulled it out a moment later and set it down in front of Zim. Zim opened his eyes to see a tiny moose, though he didn't know it was a moose until Dib asked what Minimoose was doing in Gir's head.

Gir giggled then turned and walked out of the room. The moose crawled under the covers next to Zim and promptly went to sleep. Zim relaxed a little and laid down petting the moose.

Dib smiled. "It's almost bed time anyway. Get some sleep." Zim said nothing but kept petting Minimoose. It was probably one of the strangest yet cutest sights Dib had ever seen: A tiny alien sleeping on a giant bed, cuddling with a robotic moose.


	6. Love, Fear, Defective

_**A/N:** Okay quick heads up about this chapter. There's going to be a moment where Zim is slipping in and out of a flashback. Thus the type will be slipping in and out of_ Italics. Kind of like _how I'm typing here. Italics means flashback. _Regular means reality. Sorry if it gets confusing, or hard to read, but there is a purpose for it.  
In contrast there is also a moment where Dib is having an online chat with someone (sorry that part will be script format deal with it) while what Dib is thinking in his head is in regular font, and_ the chat room type will be in Italics._

Sorry the chapter took so long also. I've had a lot going on with work and wanting to spend time with friends. I don't know about you but I'm feeling 22 and it's not as good as a song.

* * *

**Chapter 6- Love, Fear, Defective**

The next three days passed in a blur for Zim; though that was hardly surprising since he wasn't used to Earth's shortened day length. It also didn't help that Dib was at work for the majority of his waking hours; Gaz also left to some place she called Skool, a place apparently similar to the underground training facility on Irk. Thus Zim was left in the house to occupy himself.

For the most part this went well. He spent much of his time with Minimoose, playing all sorts of earth games. Zim lost most of the games; the floating moose was truly a formidable opponent, but it was fun none-the-less.

The only times he had problems were when the humans went to sleep. The darkness of the earth planet seemed to creep up on Zim. He would hide under his covers with only his moosey friend for company. With such freaquent hibernation rest being unnessisary, the sleep that Zim did get was plagued by nightmares of his days on Irk. He would wake up shaking.  
_"You're a freak!"_  
"_A loser!"_

It would be some time before he could get Red and Purple's words out of his head. It would be even harder when he found out that all humans would think he looked like a freak.

This particular realization occurred on Tuesday night. Dib was in the bathroom after eating some bad pizza, and Gaz was playing her GS5 when there was a knock on the door. Zim was sitting behind the couch playing chess with Minimoose. He looked up at the sound.

He had seen Dib answer the knock a few times before, and since both of the humans appeared to be busy, Zim decided he would be helpful and open the door. He reached the handle using his PAK legs, twisted the nob, and pulled the door open, stepping back on the mechanical legs as he did so.

"Well hello Sir and or Madam." The bubbly sales woman smiled with her eyes closed, holding up a briefcase in front of her face. Lowering it, she asked, "Are you interested in any cosmetic produc….OH MY GAWD!" She screamed when she caught sight of Zim. She turned and ran, still screaming, with her arms flailing around over her head. "IT'S SOME KIND OF FREAKISH ALIEN!"

Neighbors along the street, stepped out of their houses to see what the commotion was. Dib came out of the bathroom to find Zim frozen in fear with the curious humans closing in; he pulled the smeet inside and shut the door. He went out again, after hiding Zim out of sight, to tell everyone about some Holloweenie costume.

It took a large amount of explaining on Dib's part, before Zim could understand that the sales woman had only said what she did because most humans don't really believe in aliens. It took even longer to get the smeet to agree to wear his disguise if he ever talked to a human again, this of course was only complicated by a few snide comments from Gaz and a moment of insanity from Gir in his green doggy suit.

Zim went to bed that night holding Minimoose close. Even with the comfort of the friendly moose beside him, Zim still had nightmares and awoke only when Gaz burst into his room yelling at him for being too noisy; he didn't sleep again that night for fear the similarities between Gaz and Larb would cause more nightmares.

XXX

Dib sighed and slumped into his desk chair. He stared at the bright screen through the darkness of the room. Keeping Zim safe was a lot harder than he had first thought. He sat worrying until a ping made him look up. It was a message from Zita.

**Zita:** _Heya! Guess what?! I thought I saw Bigfoot at the store today but it turned out just to be a really hairy old lady. So how's work going for you?_

Dib smiled. Zita always had a way of turning up right when he started over thinking things.

**Dib: **_Works fine. It's home that's causing problems._  
**Zita:** _Oh yeah? What's going on with Gaz this time? More boyfriend issues?_  
**Dib:** _Nah that was sorted out. Gaz got detention for the way she got him to leave her alone._  
**Zita:** _Haha! Aww poor Keef! So if its not Gaz then what? I said I could cook for you guys, so you don't have to eat pizza all the time._  
**Dib:** _No no, nothing like that (though the pizza is awful). Actually we have a kid living with us._

Zita humored him with his paranormal talk but she would probably freak out if he actually told her Zim was an alien. Besides it wasn't a total lie. Zim was a child by his planet's standards.

**Zita:** _a kid?_  
**Dib:** _Well he's a relative, and he had some problems at home so he's staying with us._

That wasn't too bad of a lie right? Irkens and humans could be related genetically right? Why Dib had to reason all of these out, he really didn't understand, but the idea of lying to Zita made him feel nauseous.

**Zita:** _Aww! Poor guy! What's his name?_  
**Zita:** _Where's he from?_  
**Zita:** _How long's he been at your place?_

Zita began typing out questions faster than Dib could respond to them. But that was Zita for ya. Kindness wrapped up in an "I'll worry about you even if I don't know you" package. Absentmindedly, Dib squeezed the shirt over his heart.

XXX

Light shone through the window early Wednesday morning. Zim heard movement in the house but he remained still on the bed.

There was a small knock on the bedroom door. "Zim?" It was Dib. "Are you awake?"

Dib poked his head in the room. Zim was laying with his back to the door and didn't move. Thinking him to be still asleep, Dib pressed a sticky-note to the inside of the door, low to the ground, then quietly left.

Zim waited until the house was quiet before he got up. He walked to the door, with Minimoose floating behind him. It was a rather long note, written on two sticky-notes stuck together, it read:

_Zim, I know it must be  
boring cooped up inside.  
As long as you wear  
your disguise, I don't see  
anything wrong with  
you going out. Take  
Gir with you so that you  
don't get lost. ~Dib_

_PS. Weather man said  
rain tonight, be back  
before dark. _

Zim stared at the note, thinking about the humans reactions the previous day. "I don't think I want to go outside again…" Zim said.

Minimoose let out a small squeak.

Zim rubbed his antenna. "I don't know… What if the humans start screaming again…?"

"_Squeak!_"

Zim nodded. "Okay.. I guess you're right… but.."

"_Squeak squeak?_"

"Okay. Yeah some food first then I'll decide. Thanks Minimoose!"

Minimoose squeaked his reply, then the two of them ran, or floated respectively, down the stairs to the kitchen.

Zim ate a bag of processed potatoes and drank some juice from the fridge. The earth sun lit up the whole room and reflected off of Gir's head, causing brightness to flash across Zim's vision. The little robot was running from counter to counter making something to eat. Of course Zim wasn't sure why a robot needed food but he was too afraid to ask.

Twice while cooking, Gir randomly screamed, unknowingly scaring Zim, then continued singing a Doomy song.

The more he thought about it, the more Zim realized he didn't want to spend another whole day at the house with the crazy robot. Not after Monday when he'd spent 2 hours in a closet because Gir started chasing a squirrel in the back yard… with a laser.

Zim ran upstairs and put on his disguise. Going back downstairs he asked Minimoose if it wanted to come on the walk also, to which it gave a happy squeak.

From his place in the kitchen, where he was working his way through a pyramid of tacos, Gir gasped and ran toward the door, bowling over Zim in the process. "My big-headed master said I iz sposed to watch you!" he screamed. He stood with his arms out, blocking the door.

Zim backed away nervously. "But... Dib said I could go outside. I'm taking Minimoose with so..." He held up the note. Zim jumped when Gir's eyes flashed red. The robot made some noise that sounded like a combination of insane laughter and a battle cry then ran up the stairs.

Zim bolted for the door, Minimoose right behind him.

"Hurry or he'll... Ahhh!"

Gir stood waiting just outside the front door wearing his doggy costume and smiling stupidly. In his hand he held out the end of a black leash for Zim, who of course had no idea what to do with it.

Seeing his new friend in distress, Minimoose swooped in grabbed the leash in his mouth, then went bobbing down the sidewalk, dragging Gir across the pavement. Zim rushed to catch up with them.

XXX

Zim had never actually seen the cities of Irk, being a smeet he had remained in the underground training facility. Even though he didn't know how immaculately clean a Irken city was, Zim could still tell that earth cities smelled like dookie. The street corners were piled with dirt, the vehicles that drove along the ground emitted foul gases, even the humans seemed to be covered with a layer of filth.

Minimooas led them to a park when Zim started coughing. As his eyes finally ceased watering, Zim noticed the number of humans around.

_White_…

It wasn't so much the number of them as it was what they were wearing.

"Squeak?"

Zim didn't hear Minimoose.

_"This one is clearly a defective." Zim's eyes were closed but he could feel the presence of the Irken scientist looking down over him. He was afraid. Afraid and he wanted to run; but the touch of the arm and leg restraints weighed him down; leaving him trapped with in both the dream_ and in reality. The voices continued as he stood there.

_He felt the breath of a second scientist as she leaned over examining his antennae,_ not knowing it was only the wind. _"I concur. It's overly emotional, and easily scared. Not to mention the lack of an attention span."_

_"Don't forget short!" A third scientist added gleefully. _

_The female scientist agreed. "Not a good fit for a soldier at all."_

_They talked about him as if he weren't even there. Those scientists that had strapped him down to a chair after the first report that Larb made… 'I'm not even Irken to them… Just a defect…'_

Minimoose bounced up and down, while Gir stood waving his arms, as they both tried frantically to get Zim's attention; but to no avail.

_The white coats moved all around him. Running test after test, time seemed to just slip away. At first, Zim had fought his restraints but now after nearly a day of straight examination he had given up the chances of every leaving that room. _He stood frozen in place.

"Green Master! Everyone is lookin at you!" Gir's voice was both happy and panicked at the same time, an impressive feat. Minimoose squeaked desperately as the humans in white lab coats, who had been standing around a rubble filled crater (the same rubble filled crater where Zim's ship had been till they had moved it this morning), were now turning their attention to the short green child.

An older man stepped out to the front. He walked toward Zim but stopped when Gir's eyes turned red and Minimoose started growling at him.

"What are you?" he asked.  
_"What are you?" the scientist asked. _

Zim slowly looked up. The scientist seemed almost curious what his answer would be. The restraints were heavy on his mind but something else was growing in it also. 'What am I?... Defective? Maybe… Scared? Definitely… A bit tired? Of course…' Zim's PAK itched on his back, _he had just learned how to control it yesterday._

_'If I don't answer him I'll die… might die even if I do. They're all going to get angry if I say nothing.' _But the scientists were not angry. _They remained silent waiting for his answer. 'They may kill me but they will never forget me.' _

_Zim felt the gears start turning in his PAK.  
_Zim felt the gears start turning in his PAK.

_He took a deep breath before looking straight up at the taller who would condemn him.  
_He took a deep breath before looking straight up at the human who stood before him.

_A small smile crossed his face.  
_A small smile crossed his face.

_"What am I? That's easy._ I am Zim!"

XXX

"_Heya Dib! I got off work early today so I figured I'd stop by your house and cook a nice meal for you guys, and little Zim of course. I assume you left the door unlocked as you always do, if not I'll just grab the spare. Dinner should be ready at 6 when you get back so no rush. See ya then!"_ Beep… Beep… Beep…

Dib nearly dropped the phone from his hand after the message finished replaying and Zita's voice cut off. From his tiny cubical he snatched up all of his stuff and ran for the door, not even bothering to clock out.

He swore under his ragged from running breath. "Damnit Zim! I hope you have your disguise on!" Dib ran for home as fast as his legs would take him.


	7. Scars

_**A/n:** Hey guys! New chapter, deleted for a bit cause it failed to add the authors note. _

_I wanted to apologize for the cliffhanger last chapter and ask you not to hate me for this one. I was going to end it without a cliffhanger but there was a new aspect I wanted to add and felt next chapter would be too late. _

_Anyway enjoy!_

* * *

**Chapter 7 – Scars**

Zim scanned the area from his perch high atop a tree, _looking to see if any of the scientists had followed him. _He shifted his PAK legs to keep his balance; whether he was ignoring or didn't even notice the dark red color splattered over them, was unclear.

Gir and Minimoose sat nervously on a nearby branch. They couldn't get close to Zim without him lashing out. Even when Gir switched into Duty mode he was unable to subdue the smeet; in fact, seeing Gir's red eyes seemed to only upset Zim further. They were nearly back to their Master's house and Zim still wouldn't even look at them. It was then that they saw something that brought the two robots as close to panic as a robot can get.

Someone was walking into the house.

XXX

Dib was running at top speed when he passed by the park on his way home. He barely had time to register the 3 Emergency Medical Transport vehicles that were parked nearby, before he had passed it and was turning down the next street.

XXX

The door was unlocked as usual. "Honestly what am I going to do with those two. Sometimes it feels like I'm their mom rather than friend." Zita laughed to herself as she pushed open the front door with her back; her hands were filled with groceries. "I hope I got something he'll like."

Zita went straight to the kitchen to put down her load. After that she went to the stairs. "HELLOOOOO!? ANYONE HOME!?" she yelled up. There was no answer. "Well that's strange…" She returned to the kitchen and began pulling out different boxes and cartons. Smiling as she unpacked the waffle mix and a bottle of purified water, "Poor Zim, being allergic to so much. I hope these are okay," Zita hummed a tune and started cooking.

The front door creaked as it inched open.

Zita looked through the kitchen door with a smile but that faded when she saw there was no one there. "hmm… the wind?" She went and pushed the door closed. Her heart jumped when she turned around and saw a small green child suspended in the air behind her. The stare from those strange looking blue eyes, that were narrowed on her face, put her off; it was a moment before she found her voice. "H..hi there. Are you Zim?" The child didn't respond but she though she noticed a twitch in his expression. "My name is Zita. I'm a friend of Di.."

"I'm not going back."

"What?" Zita backed up a step.

"You CAN'T MAKE ME!" _Zim raised a PAK leg, thrusting the point at the Irken scientist._

Just in the nick of time, Minimoose head-butted Zita out of the way. Gir leapt in and grabbed the sharp metal point; he had shed his dog suit and his red eyes were glowing bright and angry. The two robots were done playing nice.

Zita found herself knocked into a wall. Her head hurt but she pushed herself up. "Gir!?" She'd known the robot since it was first made by Dib's father. The seriousness of its red eyes unnerved her.

Fortunately it did the same to Zim who backed fearfully away.

"Surrender Now!" Gir's voice rang through the room  
_"Surrender Now!" Red's voice rang through Zim's mind._

"Red…"Zim put his hands over the messy black wig that covered his antennae. "NO! Leave me alone!"_ Zim jabbed a second PAK leg at Red._ Gir grabbed it and held on, struggling against the PAK's strength. _Zim realized his attack wasn't getting through, he tried to pull them back but Red held on and wouldn't budge. "Please! Just let me go!" _

_Zim pulled as hard as he could, but quickly realized he couldn't get free. Panic swelled. _His two free PAK legs dug into the wood flooring in a desperate attempt to pull the robot off balance, but Gir wouldn't budge.

"I WON'T GO BACK! YOU CAN'T DO THAT TO ME!" Zim yelled out as he struggled to free himself.

"Go where Zim?!" Zita had managed to find her voice.

Zim turned and looked at her with tear filled eyes, but Zita could tell that he wasn't really seeing Her. "I don't want to die…" His voice was shaky, barely more than a raspy whisper. _'I am not defective… I'm not… why can't they just leave me alone…?' _Zim lowered himself to stand on his own fleshy feet. Raising his two remaining PAK legs, though this turned out to not be the smartest idea since without the added strength of his PAK, Gir was able to easily yank Zim off the ground and throw him into the wall opposite of where Zita sat. Zim winced as his head slammed into the wall; a sharp snap came from an antenna breaking.

Zita gasped.

The black wig lay on the floor next to Zim while his left antenna jutted off at a painful angle. He winced and wobbled when he tried to stand. His mental concentration was fogged from the pain, leaving his PAK legs resting uselessly on the ground beside him.

Minimoose squeaked desperately, but when Zim swung a PAK leg, near blind from the pain of his antenna, Minimoose quickly dodged and slammed into Zim's side; knocking him to the ground.

_Zim struggled to stand. His head hurt something fierce, probably had to do with the damage warning eminateing from his PAK; were anything else to be damaged, the stupid hunk of hardware might force him into hibernation, and if that happened… "I'll never wake up." With a desperate heave, Zim was on his feet again. He showed his enemies his determination with the narrowest glare he could manage without throbbing his head more. He raised his PAK legs. _

Strong arms closed around his body from behind.

_No! That was it. They had captured him. NO NO! _Zim closed his eyes and made one final strike, lashing out with the only robotic leg that was in position to strike the attacker.

Time seemed to freeze. He didn't feel it until it dripped down the PAK leg and splashed to the floor at his feet. Something warm and wet splattered on his face. Fearfully, Zim opened his eyes and turned back.

The figure was on eye level with him, someone he had never wished to hurt. But who was it? _Zim's sight began to blur; Skoodge's pained face came to his mind._ He blinked a few times as the vision began to fade and Skoodge's features were replaced with Dib's.

XXX

Dib had heard the fight from the end of the street, as had most of the neighbors. When he burst through the door he saw Minimoose slam into Zim. He held his breath as Zim's wig fell to the floor. Dib groaned, 'please don't have let Zita have seen that...' There was no such luck though, as Zita's back was to the opposite wall and she was staring straight at the alien.

Gir's eyes were red as he stepped caustiously forward.

"Gir! What are you doing?!" The robot did not take his eyes off Zim. Dib yelled again, he still stood by the door. "Gir! Report!"

Zim had forced himself to his feet by now. Gir ignoured Dib, at the same time as commanding Zim to stand down. Zim raised all four of his PAK's robotic limbs.

Dib reacted as if the world were in slow motion around him. He saw Gir extend a laser from his head, its blood red eyes narrowed on the "threat". He saw Zim lean forward on his tiny legs preparing to charge in. He saw Minimoose on the floor ready to trip the Smeet. He saw Zim's one broken antenna and the other one that was vibrating with fear.

His mind went blank as his legs propelled him forward.

The next thing Dib became aware of was a sharp pain in his side. He opened his eyes a crack, squinting through the pain.

"Dib...?"

Dib smiled and let out a ragged breath. "Welcome back pal. I was afraid you were somewhere else."

"I..." Zim's eyes widened as he realized what he had done. In his shock he stepped back, pulling the sharp metal point out of Dib's left side.

Dib let out a yell of pain and fell to the ground.

"DIB!" Zita ran to her friend. "Gir! Call an Ambulance! Dib... You'll be alright just hold on!"

Dib gasped. His side was on fire. Passing out would have sounded like a good idea, had he not had more to do. "Zim..." His breaths were shallow and ragged, "don't let them find him..." He coughed and a spot of blood appeared at his mouth.

"Don't talk."

Dib shook his head slightly. "Hide him... Zita... Please. It's not... His fault."

Zita looked desperately from the face of her best friend to the small alien that had stabbed him. Zim stood frozen in place; droplets of Dib's blood splatterd across his face.

Gir leapt next to Zita and, still in Duty mode, reported that an ambulance was on the way.

Zita growled in frustration before ordering Gir and Minimoose to stay with Dib. She jumped up and grabbed the alien by the collar of its blood-stained dress; it didn't resist her. She carried Zim up the stairs to the small padded room that had at one time been meant for Dib. Roughly she tossed Zim inside. Just before she shut the door she heard a small wimper. She turned back to see Zim kneeling on the ground with his head in his hands, crying.

"What have I done!?" The alien sobbed.

She should hate it for hurting Dib, but seeing its despair she couldn't help but whisper some encouraging words, "Dib's going to be fine."

Zim gazed pleadingly up at her. Zita smiled gently for a moment, but when she heard the sound of sirens approaching she quickly closed the door and headed back downstairs.

XXX

Skoodge ducked his head as Red stormed past, knocking over Tenn in the process; her stack of papers went flying in all directions. Once Red was down the hall yelling at someone else, Skoodge knelt down and helped Tenn gather the loose pages. Looking at her she looked ready to cry; not that she would since her PAK blocked that.

"You okay?" Skoodge asked, to be curteous.

Tenn nodded though her antennae were low. "He's like that all the time now. All we can do is deal with it."

Skoodge nodded.

Their time spent tormenting Zim had finally caught up to Red and Purple. Somehow during that last fight, Purple had gotten stabbed in the eye. The wound had never healed and a short 2 weeks after the fight, Purple had been decommissioned.

Red changed after that. He withdrew into his school work; never talked to anyone unless it was to yell at them to get out of his way. He never targeted anyone specifically since Zim's disappearance but this made him no less dangerous. Worst of all, though, was that he had also grown another inch since then so there was nothing the other smeets could do to stop him.

"How about you? Are you doing okay?" Tenn's voice showed her concern.

"Yeah I'm fine," Skoodge said, holding his antennae perfectly still so she wouldn't know he was lying. Ever since the day he'd launched Zim into space he'd not had a single restful night's hibernation. The guilt was eating away at him. It was only made worse when Red and Purple had beat him up so he would tell them where Zim went.

The stress of looking for Zim had done its tole on Purple, the day before he was deactivated Purple made it painfully clear that Zim's death, and by direct effect his own death as well, were both on Skoodge's hands. Even if logic told him that this wasn't true, Skoodge still heard their voices at night.

Skoodge handed the papers back to Tenn. He winced when he stood up. The scar on his side was aching, another guilt trip he assumed when he thought of how useless he'd been in helping Zim all those years.

His antennae were low as he headed off to his next class.


	8. Regret

**_A/N: _**_Didn't get very many reviews last chapter, so I decided to work on I Forgot How To Fight You (though I failed at that and ended up working on another new story I just thought of featuring the Swollen Eyeball Network (coming soon)), and that's why this chapter took so long. Sorry about keeping you all waiting when I left it with that horrible cliffhanger. _

_Well anyway, stuff's going to happen. This is on the long side of my chapter's lengths. New characters introduced and yada yada. _

_Requesting reviews that relate to **Red and Skoodge**. I'd like to know what people think about me telling their story along side Zim, Dib and Gaz's. I've got some plans for them that may begin in chapter 9 so I'd like comments._

_Other than that, Review for faster chapters and I'll get back to ya soon._

* * *

**Chapter 8 – Regret and Uncertainty**

Everything was quiet, other than the soft sleeping breaths coming from the bed next to him. The room was dark and cool when Dib opened his eyes. It took him a moment to comprehend where he was; he just stared up at the ceiling thinking, not that he could see all that much with his glasses off. Turning his head to where his glasses usually sat on his nightstand, Dib saw Gaz's head resting in her arms on the edge of the bed; her eyes were closed, as she was sound asleep. Dib could see the tear streaks that ran down her cheeks.

He smiled sadly, 'I must have really worried her,' he thought as he tried to sit up a bit. The sharp pain in his side made him bite his lip to hold back a grunt of pain. His hands went automatically to press on the wound and even though he meant to avoid it, his sudden movement woke up his sister.

Gaz jumped up from her seat when she saw Dib was awake. "Are you okay!?"

Dib lay back down, still pressing on his side, "I'm fine, just sat up too fast." Gaz stared at him worriedly. He gave her the best smile he could manage, "Really, I'm fine. I promise." He noticed her hands curled into fists, and flinched when she raised her left fist and growled angrily. Expecting to get punched, Dib closed his eyes and grit his teeth, but he only heard a soft thud.

Looking up he saw Gaz had punched the wall.

Her squinty eyes were closed and she stared at the floor by her feet. "Idiot… This is why you got out of the paranormal stuff… You said you wouldn't get hurt…" Her voice was low and her shoulders shook as she spoke, but Dib knew by now she wasn't about to cry. Gaz wouldn't, or couldn't, cry in front of people.

Dib turned his face back to staring at the ceiling, unsure of what to say. It was true that he had promised to leave the paranormal studies because they were dangerous, but when Zim showed up… What other choice did he have? And even if he had the choice, would he really give it up now that he knew all that he did?

"Gaz, I…"

There was a knock at the door, and a moment later Zita poked her head in with the Letter M right behind her. "Gaz…?" She saw Dib laying there looking at them. "Dib! How are you?" Zita rushed over to stand next to Gaz while M leaned back on the wall by the door.

Dib smiled at them. "I'm okay. It doesn't hurt that bad, honest."

The Letter M laughed and crossed his arms, "You sure gave us one hell of a scare there Membrane. When Zita called saying she was at the hospital 'cause you got stabbed…? Well, I didn't really know what to think." M's dark skin would have made him invisible to Dib's blurred vision, had M not been wearing a bright orange shirt with his dark jeans.

Dib laughed then silently berated himself since laughing made his side hurt more, and everyone noticed him wince slightly. When the pain subsided he smiled again. "Yeah sorry about that. There was a situation and things got out of hand." Dib said.

"Yeah speaking of this situation, Zita didn't say much about it. Care to elaborate?" M was just being a good friend. He and Zita had both stuck with Dib even during the years he spent with his paranormal studies, they'd been there for Professor Membrane's funeral; of course he would want to know what was going on. Dib however, wished that M would just mind his own business. He already didn't know how to explain Zim's presence to Zita, who was the only one to never say his "alien talk" was crazy.

To stall for time, Dib reached around to find his glasses. Gaz had to hand them to him because they were on a shelf across the room. Once he could see their faces, he wished he couldn't. They were all worried and waiting for an explanation. Dib sighed and carefully pushed himself to a sitting position.

"The kid," as he began he noticed Zita wince; he'd have to give her a proper explination later, but not with M around. The less people that knew, the better. "The kid that's staying with us is named Zim. He's from far away and can't go home for the moment. He's had a lot of issues in his past and…" Dib paused trying to figure out how best to phrase it, "Well he just has a lot of issues. He really didn't mean it, I'm sure of it. I really doubt he knew what he was doing. I…" Gaz punched the wall and stormed off, out into the hallway. M watched her out the door for a bit before closing it and turning back to Dib.

"Dib… He stabbed you. This Zim kid… He's dangerous." He said.

Zita stood silently. Her gaze was making Dib uncomfortable.

"Zim's not dangerous. I really don't think he even knew what was going on at the time."

M shook his head and sighed. "So where is he now?" he asked.

Zita was still staring at Dib as she spoke, "He's back at the house in the panic room."

Dib's eyes bulged. "But that's only a few meters across!"

M looked confused. "The one that the Professor made for Dib?" Zita nodded, also looking confused.

"Crap!" Dib threw the covers off and started to stand, but fell back onto the bed; Zita and M had both darted forward to stop him. When they finally got him settled on the bed again, Dib was breathing heavily. "Zita, you have to get Zim out of there!"

"What? Why? Dib, it's fine he's hidden and safe."

Dib shook his head, "He's anything but safe," he told her through panted breaths. "I think Zim's claustrophobic. He accidently locked himself in a closet a few days ago and started panicking, by the time I got home he had scratched giant gashes in the door, trying to get out." His friends looked startled but Dib didn't stop, "You have to get him out of there, before he hurts himself."

"Dude, it's a padded room? How much could he possibly do?" M asked.

Dib thought for a moment about the small amount of information that Zim had told him about the Irken physiology. "A lot, actually." He looked at Zita pleadingly. "Please Zita?"

"Now hang on Dib." M step up between them. "From what I heard, Zim also tried to hurt Zita. She's been through a lot. Why don't you make Gir go watch him?"

"Gir only upsets Zim more. He had some sort of bad experience with a robot in the past, and he doesn't like the color red."

M raised an eyebrow. "I thought this kid has only been living with you for a few days? How do you know so much about him?"

"That's not important right now," Dib said, avoiding the question. "Zita please!"

M was about to protest again, but Zita nodded and rushed out of the room. M sighed and followed after her.

XXX

It took some convincing but eventually M agreed to wait in the car. Zita headed into the house with the spare key. She hurried to the stairs, but failed to keep herself from looking at the dark spot on the living room carpet.

Upon opening the door to the small padded room, she looked in, confused. Zim was just lying on the ground, facing the door, sound asleep; his backpack lay on the ground beside him. 'So much for being in a panic from the close quarters,' Zita thought as she walked forward.

She was cautious as she knelt down by the alien's side. The green skin and antennae… Never in Zita's wildest dreams had she ever thought Dib was ever right about there actually being aliens. But here one was, just sleeping on the ground. Zita reached down and gently shook Zim's shoulder.

"Hey, wake up." Her voice was gentle albeit a bit fearful. Even if he had attacked her earlier, it wasn't in Zita's nature to hold a grudge against something so small. She shook Zim slightly harder, but the little alien still didn't awaken. Leaning forward, Zita let out a gasp. There was a metal cord coming out of Zim's back, leading right to the loose backpack, along with a second cord that was attached to only the pack. "Zim?" His face looked pale like browning grass. Something was shook him again.

When he remained motionless once again, Zita slowly reached out toward the backpack. The warmth of the metal shocked her. She laid her palm flat against the metal. "It's like a heartbeat…" Zita said; her eyes filled with wonder.

She reached down with her other hand to pick up the backpack, but was startled back when the two pink dots began blinking, and a loud beeping alarm sounded. Zita dropped the pack and stepped back.

"_Attention Biological Life Form." _The robotic sounding voice was emanating from the backpack. "_Immediate attention required. PAK removal was incomplete. Irken life signs critical. Imminent death in Three minutes."_

Zita may not have understood most of what the PAK said, but 'imminent death' was hard to miss. "Oh no! What do I have to do!?" She asked, hoping the voice would respond. It did.

"_Processing. . . . Upper neural cable requires reattachment."_

Zita jumped up and ran to Zim. She grabbed the loose cord and, crossing her fingers, placed the end of the cord into the open hole in Zim's back

"_Reactivating. . . ." _

Zita let go just before a shock of high voltage electricity passed through Zim's body. The shock lasted for two seconds then stopped. Everything was silent; a short moment later, Zim groaned in pain and rolled to his side. Zita released the breath she hadn't noticed she was holding.

"Zim? You okay?"

Zim moaned; his large pink eyes blinked in the light. The reactivation had made every one of his nerves ultra-sensitive, and every breath induced a small wave of pain. It was hazy at first but the memory of Dib's blood on his face quickly returned at full force, crisp and vivid. Zim curled into a ball and held his antennae with his hands. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you save me?"

Zita looked confused. "I don't…"

"You re-attached my PAK when you could have just let me die." Zim shut his eyes tight, trying to hold back the tears. "It would have been better for everyone…"

Zita's eyes widened as realization flooded in. _He… he didn't…_ She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

From his spot on the ground, Zim angrily tugged on his antennae with full intent on breaking them. Maybe, just maybe his PAK's energy was low enough that he would be unable to wake up from a healing hibernation.

"What are you doing?!" Zita moved towards him.

Releasing his grip on his antennae, Zim jumped up on his PAK legs and moved away from her. "GO AWAY!" Zita flinched but didn't leave. Zim glared at her, then froze like a deer in the headlights. Her eyes were the same… It was that same look. The one that Skoodge had always given him. Pity…

"Zim…"

"NO! I don't want your pity! Just let me die!"

Zita's face became steely; she stood and walked forward before Zim could react, and slapped him hard across the face. Zim's PAK legs bore the brunt of the force, or else he would have been knocked down. Stunned and confused he looked up at the human. Her face looked angry, but she was also crying.

Try as he might, Zim couldn't bring himself to look away.

The two stood there for well over a minute, just staring at one another, until M's voice called up the stairs, "Zita? Everything okay?" Zita walked to the door and called down that everything was fine.

"Why…?"

"Dib was worried about you when he woke up. I'd hate to have to go tell him that you didn't care enough to stick around."

"I didn't…" Zim paused, thinking, 'Didn't what?' he looked down at the floor, his hands shaking at his sides. He hung from his PAK legs simply because he had forgotten to move them. He couldn't think of what to say. 'I don't want to hurt Dib any more… but…'

As if reading his mind, Zita said, "You'll hurt Dib the most, if you hurt yourself."

The idea was strange to Zim. His mind couldn't quite understand why anyone would care if he hurt himself. Dib's pained face flashed through his mind. 'But if I ever lost control again…' "but if I weren't around, I couldn't hurt anyone, and no one could hurt me."

Zim flinched when Zita began walking towards him. Expecting to get slapped again, he was too scared to move; but what she did, shocked the smeet. She reached out her arms and pulled him into a gentle hug.

Zita held the alien child as he cried. The strangeness of the situation did not escape her, but as she lightly petted his head, lightly stroking the two small antennae, she decided that it really didn't matter what species Zim was. 'He's just a child.' Gradually Zim's tears subsided, but not before Zita could feel the dampness of her shirt. Once she began hearing only the occasional hiccup, Zita relaxed her grip and looked into the strange pink eyes. "How about we go visit Dib at the hospital? That sound good?"

Zim didn't look at her, only nodded.

Zita smiled and released him to stand on those robotic legs, which he shortly retracted into his pack. "You're wig is downstairs, right?" Zim nodded. "And were those blue eyes contacts?" Again he nodded. "Where are they?" He pointed across the room. Zita nodded. "okay you grab those, we'll clean them in some saline, then I'll get your wig. Then we can go and see Dib, okay?" Zim nodded.

He took her hand as she lead him out the door.

XXX

The sky outside the window of Dib's hospital room was growing dark, and yet no one had come back other than Gaz. She sat on a chair in the corner of the room, playing her GS5 and refusing to talk. Dib was used to this sort of treatment though. The fact that she had even returned to the room was proof that she cared.

Even if he didn't expect her to answer him, Dib still didn't like the silence. "I wonder what's taking them so long?" he said aloud. Gaz merely grunted in response.

There was a knock at the door. Dib sat up expecting to see Zita, but even Gaz paused her game when a tall man, looking to be aged somewhere in his late 50's, with strikingly white hair, and a solemn demeanor, entered the room. Some medical gauze was taped over a gash on his forehead. He scanned the room as if suspicious of the walls.

"Can I help you?" Dib asked.

The man glanced at Gaz, then turned his attention to Dib. "Perhaps."

Dib and Gaz exchanged a look then both turned back to the man, waiting for him to elaborate further. They didn't have long to wait.

"I've heard about the attack on your house," Dib's heart skipped a beat, "and I'd like to help, but my sources were unable to determine the identity of your ahem... attacker. I was hoping to hear from you, Agent Mothman."

Dib's eyes widened. "Agent Dark Booty?

* * *

_**A/N2:** Once again, Looking for reviews on both this chapter, and opinions on Red and Skoodge being a side by side story. Please and thank you._


	9. Hidden Truth

**Chapter 9 – Hidden Truth**

_"Hi there!"_

_"hi…"_

_"What's wrong?"_

_"nothing…"_

_"You suck at lying."_

_"What would you know!?"_

_"I know that your antennae are shaking."_

_ "Buzz off."_

_"Nah don't think I will."_

_"Why not?"_

_"Cause you're funny to mess with. My name's Purple. What's yours?"_

_"Red…" _

_"Well Red, I think you and I can be friends."_

_"Says who?"_

_"Says me. Can't you see my mouth moving?"_

_Despite his original annoyance with the smeet, Red couldn't resist laughing. _A warm feeling spread through his squeedlyspooch at the memory.

"RED! Pay attention."

Red snapped up so fast that his PAK slammed loudly into the back of his chair. Instructor Spork and all of his classmates were staring at him; it was unusual for him to not be alert during class. He mumbled a small apology and put his head down to his notes.

"As I was saying," Instructor Spork continued, "the matter of altering your PAK's language frequency…" Red didn't bother listening to the lesson. He had already worked out everything he would ever need to know about his PAK years ago with Purple. His left antenna twitched when he realized he had been using his pencil to create a doodle of himself and Purple, rather than to take notes. He put down the writing utensil and leaned back, thinking.

The past four weeks had been excruciatingly long. Not a moment went by that Red did not think about Purple or worse… Zim. It was Zim's fault. Everything was Zim's fault. Purple's injury, and his own years of anguish were only the tip of the Slavorian Slug beast's dung pile. But what did it matter now?

Hating Zim would not bring Purple back. It wouldn't even dull the pain.

Skoodge, sitting two rows to the left and one back, noticed a very slight vibration in the former bully's antennae.

"Alright Smeets, everyone needs to get into groups of two or three. Keep to two until we're sure that everyone has a partner."

Red dropped his antennae and sighed. After how he had acted over the past few weeks, there was no one that would want to be paired with him, even if he had stopped smashing lockers as of the last week.

"Want to be partners?"

Red looked up, astounded to see Skoodge standing next to him. "And why would I want that, shorty?" he was purposely offensive but Skoodge didn't seem even the least bit put off.

"Well since Zim and Purple are gone, I figure that makes you and me the two leftovers."

Skoodge had done the exact opposite of Red, trying to make friends, but Red knew it was a lie. Skoodge had done everything he could to stop Red and Purple from hurting Zim, and when that had failed, he hid Zim somewhere to protect the defective. Why on Irk would the shorty ever want to be nice to Red? Not to mention the fact that everyone in the class liked Skoodge. He may be short but he's nice to everyone, is smart, and never shows any emotion. He's the perfect little Irken that every instructor wants to see.

"No thanks."

"But…"

"I said No!" Red only raised his voice a little but everyone in the room had heard it. _'Can't lose my temper… I refuse to be deactivated like that!'_

"Skoooodge!" Pinn ran and slammed into Skoodge's side, hugging his arm. "Let's be partners!" Skoodge glanced from Pinn to Red.

"There. You've already got a partner," Red said turning his back to the two of them. He stood from his seat and asked Instructor Spork if he could work alone. He grabbed his materials and left for the library. There was one back corner among the books, where no one ever went, and no one would find him if he started to cry.

XXX

"I'm sorry, Agent Dark Bootie. Was there a question in there?" Dib's sudden seriousness was enough for even Gaz to notice.

Agent Dark Bootie walked across the room, his hands folded neatly behind his back, to stand by the window. "I realize that you have not contacted anyone in the network for some time now, but surely it has not escaped your attention that a craft, of unidentified origin, recently crashed in the city park." He turned to face Dib. "After all, extraterrestrial life always was your forte."

"No. I heard about it." Dib said, choosing his words carefully. "However due to a personal matter I have ended my involvement with the S.E.N. and did not wish to reestablish that connection." He looked over at Gaz as he spoke; hoping she would have a short telepathic burst and could read his thoughts to say nothing about Zim, but the meaning behind her narrowed gaze was not what he had been hoping.

"Actually he did…" Gaz began casually.

"Gaz!" The anger and urgency in his voice shut her up. She wasn't afraid of him, so much as she was about what he might do to himself to try and keep her quiet. He shook his head. Gaz growled then stormed out of the room. Agent Dark Bootie watched the scene discerningly.

"Your sister seemed to have something to say. I wonder what it could have been."

Dib leaned back on his bed. "Not a clue. Of course since she's the one that made me quit my studies, it could have simply meant that she had caught me checking the network for information. I mean after a year of radio silence, why would I do anything else?" Dib faked a yawn, trying to appear as if the conversation was unimportant. Agent Dark Bootie was not convinced.

"At the park today an incident occurred. A being, which we believed to be in disguise, came to the crash site and attacked many of our scientists." Gingerly touching the gauze on his head, he said, "I, myself, was also on site at the time."

Dib raised an eyebrow, keeping his face from showing the realization of what must have freaked Zim out, "And you think this being was what exactly? An alien?"

"The green skin was a dead giveaway." He paused. "There were also two other creatures with the alien. Perhaps you might know them. After all they were the famous AI creations of your father, the brilliant Professor Membrane. I believe he introduced them at a press conference as Gir and the Miniature Moose?"

Dib struggled with his poker face. How much did Dark Bootie actually know? In all the years that Dib had spent involved with the network, he had never been granted an audience with the group's mysterious leader, yet Dark Bootie was believed to be one of the few that met with him or her every day. He had always been the one to listen to Dib's reports, but on the few occasions that he was "too busy" none of the other agents could (or would) give Dib any details.

"I recently reactivated them. They must have gotten out of the house."

"I understand that," Agent Dark Bootie went on as if he hadn't heard Dib's excuse, "you've recently had a relative staying at your home with you. I am curious how you and your sister are here while this young **_child_** is not. Most human children are not capable enough to stay alone for hours on end." His eyes appraised Dib closely.

"A friend is watching him."

"Ah yes. This **_friend_**? You wouldn't be talking about a Miss Zita would you?"

Dib jumped in his seat. He glared at his former mentor, "What is this?! You hide behind code names but you spy on the lives of other agents!? My personal matters are none of your business!" Dib swung his arm as if to emphasize his point but winced as a stitch ripped and his wound reopened.

Rushed footsteps came from the other side of the door. Evidently, Gaz had heard Dib's raised voice, as she and a nurse poked their heads inside. The nurse saw Dib in pain and, while Gaz rushed to her brother's side, glared at Agent Dark Bootie. She scolded him for upsetting a patient as well as leaving his room before his M.R.I. results came back. Before she escorted him out of the room, Agent Dark Bootie turned to Dib and guaranteed he'd "be in touch".

A doctor came and mended Dib's side, then left after a short warning that Dib should not overexert himself. Neither Gaz nor Dib spoke until they were sure the hallway outside was empty.

"What's going on, Dib? Who was that guy?"

Dib stared at the wall in front of him. It made no sense. How could the Network know about Zim? He had only gone out one day and even then they had only observed him during that attack. Could someone have followed Zim home? But if they did, why didn't that person intervene before Dib ran into the house? If they had intervened, then what would have happened? What would happen now if he admitted that he had an alien staying at his house? What would happen to Zim?

"Dib!"

"Huh..?" Dib looked into his sister's apprehensive face, but looked away just as quickly. It might be better for Gaz if he just got himself out of any involvement with the Network and Zim. But would he really be okay with just handing the Irken child over to them and never knowing what's happened to him? What would they do with him? _What will they do with me and Gaz if I __**don't **__hand him over?_ His mind was going over a million questions. Dib was so distracted that he didn't even notice his sister's growing frustration.

When she couldn't hold it any more, Dib ended up with a new lump on his head when Gaz hit him with her Game Slave.

"Oww! What was that for?" Dib asked, rubbing his sore cranium.

"Stop trying to hide things from me." Gaz never cried in front of people but now she was having a hard time at stopping herself. The chance that her brother might leave her like their father did… the thought was unbearable. "Who was that guy?"

Dib sighed, "That was a very high ranking agent from the Swollen Eyeballs Network. Somehow… he seems to know about Zim."

"So what?"

"So that means that they're going to try and get their hands on him. Even if they have to use us to do so."

"Why don't you just give him to them?"

Dib's hands ran through his hair, pressing against his throbbing lump, "Be realistic Gaz! If I just gave him to them, there'd be no guarantee that he, or Us for that matter, would get away. They're a secret organization for a reason!" Gaz had no response to that.

More questions ran through Dib's head: How can I keep both Gaz and Zim safe? What about Zita? Will they go after her also? Where are Zita, M, and Zim now? Has the Network already got a hold of them? What can I do to protect them all?

A soft knock, and the door opened to find Zita roughly escorting a terrified Zim into the room. Dib's heart nearly stopped thinking of the odds that they were Not seen walking through the hospital. His breathing returned just in time to have it knocked out of him. Dib looked down to see Zim's tiny wig-covered green head buried his chest. He could feel the smeet's shaking and silent sobs, and wrapped his arms gently around, careful to go above and below the all-important PAK.

"There, there, Zim. I'm okay. I'm not hurt. Everything is going to be just fine."

While Zim was still crying, Zita stepped up, concern filling her voice. "Who were those guys out there?"

"What?! Where? Did they see you?" Dib already knew who they were but he was praying that Zim wasn't seen by them.

Zita shrugged. "Zim recognized them and started shaking. We snuck past while M distracted them. They were a little ways down the hall staring at your door." Dib swore under his breath at the news. "Why who were they?"

"Can you get Zim out of here?" Zim's antennae perked up at this and he looked up at Dib.

Zita looked from Dib to the alien. "Uh… Yeah probably, but… Why?"

Dib glanced to the door. He leaned as forward as he could without hurting himself more. "Those guys are from an organization that deals with the detection and concealment of paranormal phenomena. I **_used_** to be part of it. That's in the past now, but still... The thing is… I'm afraid they're after Zim." Dib felt Zim begin to shake in his arms. The Irken's eyes were glassed over even under the contacts. "Zim? Zim, Look at me please. Zim?"

Slowly Zim looked up.

Dib stared straight at him and mustered up as much conviction as he could get into his voice. "It's going to be okay. I promise that I won't let them hurt you."

"Dib, I don't get it. What's going on?"

A clang of metal on floor resounded through the hallway beyond the door. The group within the small hospital room froze, listening. M's voice yelled out, "Lem'me go!" and was followed by a deep throaty laugh. A panicky nurse must have heard the commotion cause she was screaming for order when she passed the door. A sharp slap and more clanging metal. One of the men outside had hit her.

M struggled against the giant of a man. Towering over M's 5feet and 11 inches by more than a foot, the man was nothing less than a troll. _'Probably has the intelligence of one to,' _M smirked at his silent joke and was slammed against the wall by the hand gripping his shirt.

"You think something's funny?"

"No sir… I just think that YOU SHOULD GET OUT OF HERE!" M raised his voice hoping that Dib would hear and take the hint. Luckily for him the man holding him was pretty stupid and only pretended to clean the wax from his ears with his pinkie.

"No need to yell," the second, much shorter, man was not quite as thick headed, "unless you're trying to warn your friend. Although with Agent Mothman injured, and this being the third floor, there's really no way they can escape. "Forget Dark Bootie," he said nodding with his head, "let's just grab 'em and go." M struggled, trying to slow them down but was dragged behind the trollman as easily as if he were a rag doll.

They didn't even bother knocking, even ignoring a second doctor racing down the hall with a security guard, and simply kicked through the locked door. The room was empty.

"We're going to die aren't we?" Gaz griped, her arms folded angrily, as she stared at her feet dangling into the open air below her, from the outside wall of the fourth floor of the hospital. On a positive note, she had a better attitude than Zita, who had looked down from the third floor, when Zim leapt out carrying all three of them with one PAK leg and supporting himself with the other three, and promptly passed out. Dib managed to keep his nerves at bay, though it was a bit hard not to panic when you were losing blood at a steady (albeit slow) rate because a robotic arm had ripped a stitch.

"Zim... gauah," Dib heaved but narrowly avoided vomiting. His head was dizzy from the pain, "get us to the next building and in… into those woods there."

Zim nodded nervously. "Okay… This might get a bit bumpy." It was the hardest thing Zim had ever done with his PAK legs. Even harder than climbing to the ceiling of the voot flight testing room in the smeet undergrounds in order to retrieve his Aldorian Puffskin that Purple had glued to the ceiling. It was only the looks on the humans' faces that gave him the resolve to get them there safely no matter what the cost.

XXX

"Agent Dark Bootie, I understand that the suspect has escaped. What became of Mothman?"

"Possibly kidnapped, most likely though, he's willingly assisting the E.T."

"Have we identified the species yet?"

"Not yet sir. But with the ship in our labs I'm sure we'll figure it out soon. I also have a plan for locating the subject."

"Hmm… Very well. Continue, but know that a third failure will not bode well for you."

"… yes sir…"

* * *

_**A/N2: **Don't forget to Review! What do you think of Red after reading this chapter?_


	10. To Protect

_**A/n:** Hey guys! Thin__gs sure are getting intense huh?_

_Zim's flashback timeline is getting longer and more detailed. I wonder if anyone can piece it together? Meanwhile, my life timeline is about to hit a new school year, and since I'm a fourth year junior in collage with two years left to go, writing most likely will take a back seat to chemistry which I've already failed twice. _

_On the up side, writing is one of my destressors so chapters won't completely cease. So for now, Enjoy!_

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**Chapter 10 – To Protect **

By the time they were a mile away from the hospital, it was nothing short of a miracle that Zim was still going. But as all things do, his energy reserves came to an excruciating (almost) end when his PAK legs retracted and everyone fell painfully to the ground. With the half a second warning Zim had that this was going to happen, he lowered Dib to the ground in a slightly more gentle fall than the others.

"Oww!" Gaz sat up moaning. "Couldn't have put us down a little softer?"

Zim sat a few feet from her, his breathing heavy and his muscles ached.

"We can't stop here." Zita jumped up and pulled Gaz to her feet, then moved to Dib when it became obvious that he couldn't walk on his own. "Zim come on get up."

Zim remained where he was, shaking his head. His body wasn't responding. The alert in his PAK was so loud that it was making his antennae throb. Dib stood, supported by Zita, gazing dazedly at Zim, then looked at his sister.

"Gaz, can you carry him?"

"What!? Why should I?!"

"Because we need to get out of here and we can't leave him." Dib's head was spinning, and he could feel a smooth trickle of blood running down the skin beneath his wound. The hem of his pants, which he had only barely managed to get on during their rush to leave the hospital, was turning redder by the second. His shirt was also sticking to his chest from both the blood and his sweat. "Just do it okay!?" He snapped when Gaz looked like she wanted to argue more.

Grudgingly she grabbed the alien by the back of his shirt. He was still wearing the mutilated dress that Dib had stolen from her room, though now it looked worse for wear, and there was dark stains along one side that were probably Dib's blood. Zim didn't struggle in her grip even though she held him at arm's length like a disgusting piece of laundry; the moment he had no longer been able to justify forcing himself to stay awake, his PAK shut him down for Slow Recharge. Gaz felt him go limp and grumbled under her breath.

"Just deal with it for a while okay?" Dib panted. He touched his hand to his forehead and looked up toward the sky to try and figure out which way was north from the sun, but the sky was spinning around him and he quickly gave up. "What side of the city are we on?"

Zita was the first to answer, "Southwest. We're only about a mile from the hospital."

"The Network will have sent agents out by now we need to switch directions and get out of their path. If we can't get away… They've got M now…" Dib was talking to himself but he knew he should have kept it to himself. "We should head east. We can go to my dad's cabin."

"Dad had a cabin?"

"He never took you there because he said it was too dangerous for a little girl."

Gaz huffed, and started walking. Dib leaned forward but Zita didn't move. Looking up he saw her eyes shining with tears. Dib felt his breath catch.

"Zita… M is going to be fine."

"How can you be sure?"

_Because they will want to use him to get to us…_ Dib said nothing out loud.

"Is this the right way?" Gaz yelled from ahead of them. Zita sniffled, wiped her nose on her sleeve, and they started walking.

Progress was slow, but with some direction from Dib, they managed to avoid three different search parties. After about two and a half hours of walking, Zim woke up and Gaz dropped him to the ground once he said he could walk. The sky was getting darker and the forest, thicker.

"You sure you're okay Zim?" Dib asked. He was still being supported by Zita, though now Gaz was helping him as well. His face, drenched in sweat, was paler than Zim remembered it being when they had first fled the hospital, and Dib was barely able to lift his own feet to keep moving. Zim insisted he was fine so as to not cause any more worry.

"I just can't use my PAK. Not till I recharge more."

Dib nodded. "The cabin shouldn't be too much farther. If we're headed the right direction still…" Dib's voice faded towards the end, and he stumbled over a small tree root. Gaz and Zita caught him in time but both girls could tell that he couldn't keep going much longer.

"So what did Dad have this cabin for anyway?" Gaz asked, hoping that talking would help Dib focus, and he knew that's what she was trying to do, but it was enough of a struggle to simply stay awake. His mind felt foggy and tired. The pain in his side was barely recognized by his addled brain.

"He… it was for… if… if any… experiments… went wrong." Dib's vision turned fuzzy. He stopped walking, no longer able to see the ground in front of him.

"No good. We need to stop somewhere." Zita scanned the woods for any concealed area but everything looked the same in all directions.

"Should I go look for a hiding place? You can let Dib rest while I search." Zim suggested. Zita shook her head.

"You're barely any better than Dib. Both of you wait here with Gaz. I'll go search."

"No!"

Everyone turned to look at Zim. His eyes were narrowed on the ground and his tiny gloved hands were shaking, balled into fists. Dib was just conscious enough to note the position on Zim's antennae, which were held just higher than normal.

"Please let me do it. You guys have done so much to help me. I can't help Dib if someone would come, but I can make sure that I'm not seen. I also won't get lost since my PAK is working on making a map of the area." He ran up in front of Zita as she and Gaz lowered Dib to the ground. "Please, let me do this. I want to help." With him being so adamant, Zita had no choice but to agree. Zim hurried off as fast as his little legs would take him.

After walking for 10 minutes, Zim found a tree tall enough for his purposes. "Right… I've got just enough to get up there and do a scan…I'll worry about getting down later." With precision and skill that he didn't normally have, Zim used his PAK to make his way up the tree. Soon he was looking out above the forest canopy into the crimson sunset. It was a startling red and Zim had to turn away from it to avoid losing himself.

A small metal eye extended from the PAK. As it rotated, a bright beam of light scanned the horizon. Within seconds Zim had a completed map of a 5 mile radius. There was no cabin within range, but there was a cave. "Then that's where we're going."

His goal completed, Zim looked down the tree and gauged his options. He'd never be able to climb down; his PAK would shut the legs down before he even got half way. "I guess I could use a shield sphere," _if I don't mess up again._

_"You need to concentrate harder!" _

_One year old, Zim closed his eyes and grunted, really trying. The tips of his PAK legs moved together right by his sides. He could feel the tips heating to produce a solid plasma shield._

_"You're putting the energy in too slowly. One fast burst. Give it everything you got!" _

_"I'm Trying!"_

_"Not hard enough! Come on Serazime! Defend yourself!"_

_"He's never going to get it…"_

_"Ignore him. Just do it. I don't believe what Larb keeps saying about you. Now prove it to Purple to!"_

_"I can't!"_

_"You can! Now stop crying or you'll get deactivated!"_

_Zim wiped his face and gave another push, but nothing happened and he started crying again. He closed his eyes and looked away._

_"Told you he wouldn't get it."_

_"… Hang on I got an idea. Zim look at me a second."_

_Zim turned to look and saw a laser beam shooting directly at him. He covered his face, yelped in surprise, and the laser glanced off the side of his instantaneous shield sphere. He opened his eyes to look at Red who was smirking at Purple who was in shock that Red actually shot at Zim._

_"Told yah he could do it." Red looked at Zim, "Stop crying. Don't forget that feeling. That's what the shield is for; to protect you from danger."_

Too bad I was never able to convince myself you were dangerous… Zim glanced toward the sunset again then jumped off the branch. Less than a second from hitting the ground, Zim activated the shield. It bounced once off the ground then shut down. Zim hit the ground painfully, but only from a fall of 5 feet. Stiffly he got to his feet and hurried back to the others.

XXX

M slammed his fist again on the door of his cell.

"Would you give it a rest already! These guys don't care if your innocent." M's cellmate yelled from the small cot on the corner.

"I don't even know what they've locked me up for! They can't get away with this! I'm a tax paying citizen!"

"Boy, you really are clueless. These guys aren't from the government. Or if they are it's not one that normal humans know of." The man rested comfortably whith his hands folded on his chest. He was skinny and looked malnourished; his clothing, which was once a respectable shirt and tie, was dirty and tattered. He looked like he could be in his 30s but the accumulated dirt on his face seemed to add years. "What's your name kid?"

"Everyone calls me the letter M."

"M huh? Well I'm Dwicky. They claim I'm a menace to society after I took a picture of what I thought was a bear walking on two legs. That was two years ago and I've been here ever since."

"I helped a child with a medical condition that made his skin green escape with my friend, his sister and my girlfriend from a hospital."

Dwicky let out a low whistle. "well on the bright side," his smile had a malicious look about it, "you won't be here for too long. They'll either torture you to find out where your friends are, or use you as bait to lure them back." He laughed and sunk lower into the bed. "Nice meeting you."

M felt the knot in his stomach grow. Just what have I gotten myself into? He sunk to the floor and put his head in his hands. Zita's face came to mind. Please let her be safe.

XXX

"Red? Red?! Are you in there? Instructor Varshlez is really upset that you haven't been to your last 3 classes. Hello?" Skoodge sighed and typed in the override code that he'd gotten from one of the teachers months ago for getting Zim out of locked rooms. "Red…? You there?" He poked his head in the room but it was empty. The two beds in the room looked like they hadn't been slept in for days.

One side of the room was painted with splotches of purple paint, the other in red, and meeting in the center, written half in one color and half in the other were the words, _To See in Color can't be All Bad!_

Skoodge stared at the two different scribbled handwritings that made up the phrase.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"

Skoodge turned around to find Red standing in the doorway; a pile of books were dropped and forgotten at his feet. "I… I uhh…"

"GET OUT!" Red grabbed Skoodge's antenna, threw the shorter smeet out of the room and slammed the door as fast as he could.

Red wasn't in classes for the next two days. When asked, the Instructors stated that his homework was left on their desk before class so they weren't really concerned where he was.

* * *

A/N2: Don't forget to review! I still want to hear opinions on what's going on with Red, Skoodge, Zim, and the whole thing between them. Give off guesses on what happened in the past if you have any! I know what it is already but I'm curious what you think!


	11. Things Said

_**A/N: **Short author's note cause I have to leave for work but I wanted to post this for you guys cause you're awesome! __I really appreciate every review and favorite that I get. I love knowing that people care about this story. _

_I move back to school at the end of this week and then I don't know when I'll get the chances to write. I make no promises beyond that I WILL NOT QUIT THIS STORY! So you don't have to worry about that. _

_Okay got to go! Bye!_

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**Chapter 11 – Things Said**

The night was cold but the sweat just kept rolling off of Dib's face. Zita went to the front of the cave and held out the piece of her dress that she had torn off earlier into the cool water from the waterfall that hid them from view. With a thread from Gaz's sweater and a thin wire from Zim's PAK they were able to stitch up Dib's wound. Unfortunately he came down with a fever not long after. They decided they couldn't do anything more for the night so they moved to the back of the cave to get some rest. Gaz sat near the entrance keeping watch.

"Why aren't you sleeping?"

"His fever is getting worse…" Zita placed the cool cloth on Dib's forehead.

Gaz came back and felt her brothers forehead, frowning. Her hands jumped to the small laser they'd gotten from Zim's PAK when the Irken snorted in his sleep. She relaxed when she realized there wasn't any danger, but Zita could still see her hands trembling. "Stupid thing sleeps like a log…"

"He is only a kid after all."

Gaz watched Zim twitch in the midst of a nightmare. "Dib said that to... but I... I just can't see it." Her face screwed into a scowl. She stood again and marched back to the front of the cave. Zita watched her back for a moment then went to join her. Gaz rushed to wipe her eyes when Zita sat down on a nearby boulder.

"You wanna talk about it?"

"Talk about what?" Gaz's face was blank; she stared off at the wall of water. "The fact that we're sleeping in a cave and there's an alien less than 20 feet away? Or that we can't go home because we're being chased by a group of paranormal nut jobs that my brother, who could be dying of a fever right now, used to be desperate to impress? Or maybe that I'm cold, tired, and hungry and how we wouldn't even be in this mess if I hadn't gone to that stupid tournament!?"

"Tournament? You mean your Vampire Piggies one?"

Gaz nodded. "If I hadn't gone to it, Dib would never have been in the park when that thing's," she spat out the word, "ship crashed."

"Gaz, None of this is your fault."

"No, it's that thing's."

"It's not Zim's fault either." Zita leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "He never asked to be chased by those guys."

"But why did he have to come here in the first place…? Why couldn't he just stay on his own planet… and leave us the hell alone…"

"Have you tried asking him?" Gaz didn't respond. Her dark eyes just stared off into the wall of water. "Gaz… I know this is hard. Honestly… I'm scared to," Zita ignored Gaz's grumble that she was not scared and stared straight at the girl, "I'm worried about M, but neither worrying nor placing blame will get us out of this. We…" Gaz held her hand over Zita's mouth and shushed her. The two girls sat quietly and listened as two voices neared their hiding place.

"The tracks ended downstream from here. They probably went further down river since there's no way they made it up that." A woman's voice said with complete certainty.

"You're probably right, but it wouldn't hurt to check." This one was a man's… or maybe a boy's… it sounded much younger than the woman.

"Check what? You planning to follow the river all the way to its source or something? It's a waste of time. We should follow the river and look for tracks or low hanging branches." The woman paused then added thoughtfully, "and also look for small circular holes, if that alien is still using its technology to help them elude us."

"That alien… What do you think it is?"

"No idea. I didn't see it. The reports say it's short and has good technology, maybe a Vortian?"

"I suppose it's possible… but don't those ones rarely leave their planet?"

"It's rare but not unheard of. There was one here back when I first started in the Network."

"Really? What happened to it?" Gaz could hear her heart pounding in her ears when the silhouette of the boy moved closer. The full moon in the sky left an eerie shadow on the rolling water. He selected a stone from on the shore then sent it skipping across the water.

"It died not long after it crashed here…"

"Injuries?"

"Earth's gravity is higher than their planet's. It was slowly crushed." The boy made a very clear hiss of sympathy pain. "If this alien is indeed a Vortian then we won't have to worry too much about finding it after a few more days."

"And if it's not?"

The woman heaved a deep sigh, "Then we may have a long and troublesome search ahead of us."

Gaz and Zita hardly dared to breathe as the voices moved further and further away. Not until they could no longer hear anything over the rushing of the water did either of them dare speak again. Zita reached out and took the laser from Gaz's shaking hands.

"I'll keep watch. You go sleep." Gaz reluctantly stood and headed back to find some rock to use as a pillow, "And Gaz…?"

"What?"

"It's not your fault."

XXX

_"Daddy? How many planets are out there!?" _

_"Hmm. Well scientific observations have shown trillions of galaxies each with billions of stars. And while science hasn't yet found a way to tell us which ones have planets around them, it soon will. Nothing can stop SCIENCE!"_

_Gaz stared up at her Dad as he pumped his fist in the air dramatically, she and her brother sitting on his lap. Six-year-old Dib's eyes shone bright as he stared up at the sky._

_"Does that mean there are people on those planets to!?"_

_Their father laughed. "Of course not son! If something lives on another planet it is going to be a completely different alien species." Dib looked a little sad but his smile returned quickly. _

_"Do you think any aliens could come to earth!?" _

_Four-year-old Gaz wiggled to a better sitting position, completely sick of the conversation and her Dad and brother's fascination with sitting out and watching stars. Family time he said, but Gaz wanted family time to be spent playing a game with everyone. Something that she could use her high intelligence on, because she was after all smarter than any other kid she'd ever met. It was so stupid. Why did they have to sit there and do nothing? It was boring. "Why would they ever want to?" so they could come stare up at the stars like idiots?_

_Dib puffed out his chest at his sister, "Maybe they want to make friends."_

_That was the stupidest thing she had ever heard. "I'll bet the only reason an alien would ever come here would be to destroy us."_

_"Why would they want to do that?" _

_"If they're smart enough to get across the universe, why would they want to make friends with humans that can't even get to another planet around their own sun? I bet they would just destroy us so we don't mess up the rest of space like we have earth."_

_Dib turned to their Dad, his eyes starting to fill with tears. "They wouldn't do that would they Dad?"_

_"Now Now son. If aliens do come to destroy us then at least we can learn some science from them first." Dib didn't say anything else that night, not until Gaz was tucked into her bed when he poked his head in the room._

_"Gaz… not everyone is mean. Just watch. I'll find an alien and prove to you that they're nice!"_

_"You do that."_

Tears fell from her face dripping down and wetting her purple hair. Gaz lay on the cold cave floor trying to keep the sobs from being noticed. Her voice was a low whisper that only she could hear, "That's where you're wrong Zita… it's All my fault."

XXX

Morning was slow to come. Zita hadn't realized she'd fallen asleep until she found herself being shaken awake by Zim. She sat up so quickly that the two of them smacked head. "oww… Oh sorry Zim. Should have warned you what happens when you wake me up suddenly. Are you okay." The force of smashing head's had knocked Zim back onto his behind. He rubbed his forehead and blinked a couple times, then stood up as if nothing had happened.

"I'm fine. But Gaz is gone."

"WHAT!?" Zita jumped up and looked frantically around the cave, but Gaz was indeed missing. "Where would she go! Oh no! This is so bad!"

"What are you yelling about now?" Gaz walked around the lip of the cave. "We're supposed to be hiding remember?"

"GAZ!" Zita ran over and grabbed the girl by the shoulders. "What's the matter with you! Don't EVER scare me like that again!" She pulled her into a hug then noticed the crinkling of plastic. She released Gaz to see the girl was holding an arm full of snacks. Zita blinked a couple times while her brain processed what she was seeing. "Where did you get those?"

"Does it matter?" Gaz tossed a bag of chips in the air for Zita to catch, then lobbed one towards Zim, but since it landed in a pool of water all he could do was stare at it. "What's the matter? Not hungry?

"No I…" Zim stared at the water.

"Zim? What's the matter?" Zita asked, as she started opening her own bag. "The food will still be dry just grab it and start eating. We've got to figure out what to do next."

"But..!" A glare from Gaz shut him up. Her eyes were cold. She knew that Zim couldn't touch water without being burned. She wanted him to be hurt like Dib was, and only the tiniest thought, which she refused to acknowledge, cared that doing this was wrong.

Zim knelt down over the pool, glad that he still had the boots and black rubber gloves that Dib had given him. The chip bag was floating not far away, maybe a human's arm length, but to the smeet it was an impossible distance. Zim reached out as far as he could without falling but the snacks remained out of his reach. A small chunk of rock broke off from the ceiling and fell into the pool, splashing Zim in the face.

Zim fell backwards with a yell of pain.

Zita jumped to her feet and ran over. Zim lay on the ground holding his face. She pulled the smeet's hands away from his face to see a raw brownish splotch on his face. "What happened!?"

"Oops." Gaz was munching away at her own chips. "I guess Dib mention something about rain hurting him." Zita threw a glare at Gaz then pulled Zim away from the pool. She took him towards the front of the cave to where there was more light and looked at the burn. Zim's eyes shone with tears from the pain but he didn't let them fall. He pushed Zita's hand away.

"I'm fine. I heal quickly."

"It could get infected."

"It's not like you could treat it with anything other than bandages anyway! I don't know what else on this planet will hurt me!" Zim had raised his antennae and his voice. They dropped again when he saw the hurt look on the human's face. He looked away and didn't say anything.

Zita didn't say anything either, just gave him her dry packet and went to retrieve the floating one. "Next time try and actually toss it To him." Zita said Gaz let out a puff of annoyance, as if it was the alien's fault that he couldn't go in water.

The mountain of snack bags was gone in a matter of minutes.

Zim ate more than half of them because Zita had insisted that he needed them to recharge. And he had. The signal from his PAK told him that he was back up to 70%, plenty of energy to run his spider legs, laser cutters, force shield, or whatever else he needed.

"Anything left over?"

All three of them jumped to their feet as Dib came stumbling over. He sunk down on the wide rock next to his sister. Gaz handed him the last packet that she had only just opened. Dib ate from it gratefully but only felt hungrier when he finished. He realized that everyone was staring at him. "I'm fine okay? Just a little dizzy." He sighed in exhasperation when Gaz reached up and felt his forehead, then swatted her hand away. "I'm fine. We need to find the cabin, and maybe some more food."

"Would the SEN have alerted the public to look for us? Will we have to avoid the main roads?" Zita asked.

Dib shook his head. "The network is very secretive. They don't involve the general public Ever."

"Hey…" Gaz spoke up, "so could we go get help from that house where I got the food?"

"What house?"

Gaz shrugged. "It was weird. Kind of like a large metal shack. There were a lot of computers and snacks inside. You wouldn't believe the number of Twinkies I saw." Dib started laughing then ended with holding his side. A bead of sweat ran down his face.

"Good work Gaz. You found Dad's cabin."

XXX

"Anyway… I guess what I'm trying to say… umm…"

"Apology accepted Red." Tenn smiled brightly at him. She had been friends with him and Purple for the longest time. Not as close as the two of them were with each other, but enough that Red was willing to actually try and apologize for his behavior.

Red dipped his antennae and shrugged his shoulders. Irken's don't really apologize. Tenn had spared him from actually having to say it. "Thank you. Friends again?"

"When were we ever not?" Red laughed, around someone his own age for the first time in over a month. Tenn smiled, relieved to know she hadn't completely lost him. "It's good to see you're getting back to normal."

Red's smile faded and he gazed at Tenn. "I must have caused you so much trouble." This was how Irkens spoke. They could never really express themselves. Never using words that defined emotions, never being able to say you care. Tenn knew he was saying sorry for worrying her, though neither of them could say it. The Instructors were in the room, as were some of their other classmates.

_Never admit to having emotions!_

"Only a little." Tenn looked at the ground, occasionally glancing up at Red who was still staring at her. Something in his eyes made her nervous, wondering if there was something he wasn't saying, but she kept the thought to herself. "Just promise me that if you ever need to talk…"

"Yeah. I promise."

As a new group project began, the other smeets saw Tenn and Red talking as if nothing had ever happened. A look of relief passed among them. One by one, everyone that had called Red a friend, headed over to the table to join them.


	12. Hiding Places

_**A/N: **__Hey guys! Sorry this chapter took longer than usual. I've started school so this will probably become the pattern. I'm also working on my dA comic so that's also taking time. My classes this year are tough but hopefully I won't have to put all stories on hold._

_The Zim/Red/Skoodge timeline get's longer again, and something is going on with the Swollen Eyeballs. Does anyone have a guess at what's happening? Leave reviews!_

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_x  
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**Chapter 12 – Hiding Place**

Skoodge wobbled down the hallway, struggling under the weight of his books. How Pinn could possibly be busy when the project was so close to due, he would never understand. His antenna perked up from a sound he had not heard for months. Skoodge dropped his books and ran down the hall, turning the corner. "Zi..m" He stopped and jumped back around the corner. But that's…

"Hey now, don't cry. It's going to be okay." Red sat beside a maroon-eyed smeet who looked no older than one year of age. "PAK's aren't that hard to control once you get used to 'em."

"But…*sniffle* but what if I fail! I don't want to get hurt…" The younger smeet's legs were pulled close to her chest, with her face buried in her knees. Her shoulders shook as she failed to suppress her sobs. Skoodge knew he should leave. It's not right to spy on people… but the shock of seeing the warm smile on Red's face had left him rooted to the spot.

Red placed his hand on the smeets head, gently stroking her antenna until she called down some. "You know, I had a friend like you once. He was kind of an idiot, and really sucked at using his PAK. He was afraid that something would go wrong. The idea of losing control of his PAK terrified him. It got really bad, to the point that the teachers were starting to whisper that he was defective."

"What happened to him?"

"Well… it wasn't the best way to do it maybe… but I glued his pet to the ceiling of the flight testing room." The little smeet looked appalled. "Yeah, yeah… I know it wasn't nice. But soon as he saw what I had done, he immediately scaled the walls and saved the puffskin. Using nothing but his PAK legs." Red's eyes half closed, there was sadness and regret behind the happy memory. "The problem wasn't that he couldn't control them. It was that he didn't want to hurt someone if he messed up."

"But if he had fallen with the puffskin… they both would have died!"

"Nah… I wouldn't have just let him fall. Though that doesn't mean that I was going up those walls again… it was really high up and difficult even for me, but he was amazing. He climbed up those sheer walls in no time flat. All he needed was some motivation." Red's eyes moved over the smeet as she seemed to be thinking about his words. "Think of it this way. You practice right now; that way when someone eventually needs your help, you'll be able to do everything you can to protect them."

The two curly antennae stood up, and the female's eyes widened with excitement. She jumped to her feet. "I'm going to give it another try!"

"Yeah!" Red pumped his fists in the air cheering her on. The smeetling ran back into the practice room, thanking Red and asking if she could show him once she got really good. Red laughed and agreed. When he turned around he saw Skoodge standing there. Red's face went from happy to horrified to embarrassed to anger in a couple seconds. "You! Thought you'd just spy on me!?"

"She seems happy now."

"What?" Red looked to the room. "I don't know. Maybe. Not like I did anything… because I Didn't!"

"Uhuh… sure."

"WHAT IS IT WITH YOU! Why are you even here!?"

Skoodge's antennae dropped flat against his head. His three fingered hands fidgeted a bit, "I… I heard the crying… and I just thought…" I thought I would find Zim… Skoodge didn't finish his thoughts. He knew there was no way that Zim could be on Irk… Not after what I did to him.

"You thought you'd find a new little defective friend? Is that what you need to feel good about yourself?! If you cared so much about Zim why didn't you just go with him?! Instead of leaving him all alone…" Red's antennae drooped. Then he noticed Skoodge's expression and his anger returned. For a second it seemed he would start yelling again, but then the female smeet poked her head out of the room. She looked up at Red. His eyes glanced down at her. "Whatever," Red turned his back and stormed off, making the first turn he could to get out of their sights.

Immediately after Red turned the corner Skoodge let out a yelp of pain because the smeetling had kicked him in the shin with all the strength she had.

"What was that for?!"

"You leave him alone! He always comes to help us practice! He's nice!" Her little fists beat against Skoodge's arm, he was only a head taller than her.

"Oww jeeze! I didn't do anything!"

"Liar! He wouldn't get mad at you if you didn't!" She just wouldn't listen to his pleas of innocence. Skoodge had to sprint to get away, but once he was finally clear of the angry smeetling he puffed out his chest and folded his arms in an annoyed pout.

"She doesn't know what she's talking about. Red is the jerk not me. I never did anything to him and neither did Zim."

XXX

The cold metal walls, the hum of computers, the overall grey color of the room; for the first time, Zim felt like he was back on Irk. Even if not all his memories were good, that Underground Training Facility was still his home. He just hadn't realized how much he really missed it.

"Did you find any medical supplies in there Gaz?" Zita poked her head around the door. Gaz looked up from the cabinets and shook her head. Zim climbed down from the higher shelves and reported his findings, not really knowing half the foods he was saying. Zita sighed, "Doesn't look like we have a lot to work with. Gaz pass me that bowl there. Dib's fever is rising again, we need some water."

While Zita and Gaz rushed around still looking for bandages and whatever else, Zim paced the edges of the room. He could feel the floor lightly humming under his black boots. There was something, a computer maybe, running and it was powerful enough to shake the house. He could feel it. Of course he said nothing because the one time he tried Gaz growled at him and Zita told him "not now", so he decided to wait until he found more information.

A basic scouting exorcise, a simple matter for an Irken soldier. It was something he'd been taught in year three; search and retrieval tatics. Not that he was the best at it. Every time one of the humans spoke he would look up or get distracted and lose track of the area of floor he was scanning. He grumbled under his breath the fifth time this occurred, then took two steps back to reset. When he took an extra half step, the heel of his boot sunk into a crack and the smeet fell onto his backside.

Zim crawled over to where his boot had remained, while his foot had fallen out of it. The heel was stuck so good in the crack that he had to use his PAK to pull it out. Once it was free he could see that it wasn't a crack, which he'd tripped on, it was a shaped divot in the metal.

"Hey. What is this?"

"What's what Zim?"

"This dip in the floor."

Zita looked over from where she stood, dabbing a wet cloth on Dib's forehead. "It's an old building it's probably just the warping of the floor."

"This is a perfect shape though. A dip in metal like this wouldn't be"

"Would you just shut up…!?"

Zim jumped and immediately closed his mouth. Gaz's angry eyes bore down on him even though they were squinted closed. He quickly looked away from the scary human. _'_Fine then I'll figure it out on my own.'

Metal slid out the top opening of his PAK and slid up his neck and a pair of goggles fitted themselves over his eyes. Zoom in. Adjust the focus a bit. And there! …

Zim stared in awe of the crossing lines of the bottom of the hole. 'Like it's the outlet for a computer chip!' He scanned the room for possible locations for the missing chip. Through cabinets, drawers, walls, ceiling, getting yelled at by Gaz twice and kicked out of the bathroom; it had to be somewhere right? Maybe it didn't, but the tiny building was his best bet. But it was so small! One bathroom, a kitchen, and a big room with a cot in it; all the walls, floors, and ceilings were made of metal, with no tiny buttons or switches for a secret hiding spot.

So where could it be!?

_"Sometimes the best hiding spot is clipped on your antennae."_

_"What do you mean by that?"_

_"It's simple. If you look in all the obvious places, and don't find it maybe you should give yourself the once over and make sure you didn't have it all along. Or if it's something important maybe it's hidden with someone important."_

_"That doesn't make any sense."_

_"You'll understand some day, Zim… Don't give me that look, you goof. All I'm saying, is that if you have to make sure something important is kept safe, give it to someone who cares about you and the stuff you give them."_

_"You mean like how I take care of my puffskin?"_

_"…yeah. Just like that."_

_"…Will the item still be safe if the one who gave it doesn't like the one they gave it to, anymore?"_

_"You're not going to hurt your pet are you?"_

_"No… of course not!"_

_"Then it's fine."_

_"Okay… Hey, Skoodge?"_

_"Yeah, Zim?"_

_"Thanks."_

_"... any time."_

Leave it with someone important. The person who built this, Dib's father-thing, would make this shaped computer chip and leave it with someone important. Dib!

Zim ran over and climbed up onto the couch. He pulled back the sleeping Dib's eyelid, "Do you have a shaped computer chip?"

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

The back of a broom slammed into Zim and he went flying off the couch. He had to run when Gaz brandished her new weapon.

"If I ever see you touching him again after what you did… I'll… I'll…"

Whatever she decided she was going to do, was completely missed by Zim. Cause he saw it. A flash of white in the corner of his eye, swinging from around Gaz's neck, the same shape as the one on the floor. He took a step forward.

_"Gaz and Dad were close. His death hit her the hardest. Try and forgive her for the way she acts. It's not her fault. She just really misses him. You know that necklace she wears? It was a gift from him. She never takes it off."_

Zim dodged to the left, as the broom passed inches from his head. "Wait…" jumped over a sweep of the feet (pun intended)… "you don't…" ducked below… "understand… I… just…"

"Shut up!"

"Gaz stop!" but Zita's plee went unheard.

"After what you did! You think I would ever let you near him again! Just stay away from us! Everything is your fault! I hate you!" With every yelled statement, Gaz made another swing at Zim, forcing him to back up and dodge. On one pass, the end of the broom smashed right intot he wall and the head of the broom snapped off, that didn't stop the human though, she saw the broken end of the stick and with less than a second's thought she made a step forward to close the gap and swung at Zim's head.

The stick caught the middle of Zim's antenna, not enough contact to break it but it dazed him well enough.

_Warning! Host under attack! Taking Defensive Measures._ The words rang in Zim's head, matching his trained reaction. His PAK legs extended and Gaz's next swing smashed on a defense shield. She stared stunned for a moment then began to angrily beat on the shield. Unfortunately for her, cooled plasma is stronger than wood.

The broomstick snapped, Gaz growled and aimed a kick at the alien. Unfortunately she didn't see that the sharp end went flying backwards… straight at Zita.

An inch from her face, the chunk of wood disintegrated from a laser shot from the point of one of the PAK legs. With his shield gone, Gaz's kick made full contact. Zim stumbled to the ground clutching his squeedlyspooch. Just before Gaz could kick him again, Zita ran up behind and put the girl in half-nelson and pulled her back.

"ENOUGH GAZ! IT'S NOT ZIM'S FAULT!"

"I DON'T CARE! EVERYTHING STARTED WHEN HE CAME! IF HE'S GONE WE CAN GO HOME! IF HE'S GONE… everything will be how it should be…" Gaz's voice broke and she started to cry. Zita released her and Gaz ran from the room.

_"If you weren't here it wouldn't be this way."_ Skoodge had said that too…

Zim forced the tears out of his eyes, he had a mission to complete.

"Are you alright?"

"Fine…"

"She didn't mean it."

"Yes she did."

Zita had no response to that. Zim stood and brushed her arm off of his shoulder. His grip tightened on the small white object in his hand. The one he'd only been able to grab because Gaz had gotten close enough to kick him.

"What's that?"

"Hopefully…? A key."

The computer chip, disguised as a skull necklace, locked into place. The house shook, as a door to a hidden basement slid open.

XXX

"Mothman's sister ran out of the house and it started to shake only a few seconds later. What the heck is going on?!"

"If the house collapses we go in and get them all out, if not just hold your position. We already know that the alien is Irken so it's not in any immediate danger."

"…"

"Do you copy Agent Kelpie?"

"… right… copy that…" A woman with brown hair shut off the communicator. She gazed down at the shaking metal building with worry. "I hope Mothman has some sort of plan… or things are about to get messy."

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**_Review!_**


	13. Intruder

**Chapter 14 – Intruder**

"Thank you have a good day." The woman behind the counter smiled as she passed the bag of groceries down to the nubby arms of the small green dog. Gir smiled and hugged the paper bag. He pulled out a bottle of mustard and began to drink from it. Minimoose floated up behind him.

"Squeak?"

"I'm making a cake!"

"Sqeak?"

"No silly! It's for my Master when he comes home!" Gir stared at a random hamster as it strolled down the street. He smiled and shrugged his shoulders then started walking to home. Minimoose followed.

"Squeak…"

GIR just smiled and continued walking, humming a random tune the whole way.

When home was near enough that their robotic binocular vision could see it, Minimoose notice a car parked out front. GIR saw it also, but didn't pay any attention to it. Minimoos stopped to stare when he saw his green friend being lead out of the house by the female friend of his master, toward the other male friend of his master. The two humans and the Zim got into the car and drove off.

"Squeak?"

"Maybe they went for some salted nuts?" GIR suggested, still smiling. Minimoose didn't think much of that possibility but followed GIR anyway. A block from the house, however, both Robots halted with confused stares. Someone else was entering the house, and it wasn't someone they had seen before. This female human was similar to the Zita, in that she was tall with short purple-colored hair. The difference was, this human had to pick the lock. They watched dumbfounded as the woman walked inside. Quickly, Minimoose flew up and grabbed GIR's antenna in its mouth then flew towards the house.

The woman with purple hair was going up the stairs when GIR and Minimoose peaked through the window. She stopped at the door to Dib's bedroom and went inside. When she came out, a bag was slung over her shoulder, metal scraped on metal as she made her way down the hall. GIR gasped and tried to run inside but Minimoose held him back.

"Squeak."

"But she's stealing master's stuff!"

"Squeak."

"Oh Okay." GIR stepped away from the window. Smoke issued from his feet and his rockets propelled him skyward, towards the hospital, in search of his Master.

Minimoose waited until the human had exited Gaz's room before quietly floating inside.

XXX

GIR flew high over the city, frowning. He had forgotten to bring his mustard with! What was a flight over the city without mustard?! The little robot adjusted his trajectory and headed for the nearest grocery store.

XXX

_"Out of my way! He's not a defective! You can't just!"_

_WHAK_

_"Red?! Are you okay?!"_

_"… I'm fine…" Red glared up at the scientist. _

_"Smeets are to be seen not heard. You respect your tallers. The fate of this smeet is of no concern of yours now I suggest you control yourself or I shall have to bring both of you in for analysis as well."_

_"You can't do this! He's not defective! Just because he gets sad doesn't mean"_

_"ENOUGH! I do not answer to you, Smeetling!" The scientist spat out the word. His eyes were cold as he glared down at Red. "I've had enough of this. Both of you will report to your quarters."_

_"I'm not leaving without Zim!"_

_The scientist scoffed and turned his back calling for the guards. Two burly elites came from around the corner, "Take these two and lock them in their quarters until I alert their instructor." They moved towards the smeets. The first guard made a grab at Red, but he ducked under his arm. _

_"Oww! That hurts! Lemme go you giant dookie!" The second guard had grabbed Purple by the antennae and held him up in the air._

_"Purple!"_

_The guard struggled with Purple as the smeet attempted to withdraw his PAK legs. "Hold still runt!" He threw Purple to the ground, then jabbed his weapon at him. Purple yelled out as a shock went through his body, and he dropped to the floor. _

_"Pur gah…" Red slammed into a wall from the force of a kick in the squeedlyspooch. He forced himself to his feet, coughing. _

_"The smeet doesn't know when to quit."_

_"Who cares, just get rid of it." _

_Red never had time to dodge the next attack._

He fell out of his bed with a thud. It took both his meaty and mechanical brains a moment to register that he was awake, and another moment for him to discover how tangled in his blankets he was. Extricating himself from the sheets, Red stared up at the red wall on the opposite side of the room. Even in the dark, he could see the chips in the paint. The tiny handprints that lined the edges of the color were barely half the size of his hands now. He sighed and scratched the base of his antenna, sitting up.

"Why did that have to happen… first Zim… then Purple…" Red hugged his knees in close.

A dark-skinned lightblue-eyed Soldier paused on his security detail. Small sniffles came through the doorway next to him. He looked down the hallway, both directions, then plugged a cord from his PAK into the message board on the door.

Red jumped as his PAK alerted him to the message. He waited for a minute before poking his head out the door. A Soldier was down the hall turning a corner.  
**_Beware you don't let anyone else hear that._**  
The goo drained from his face. Someone had actually heard… Red ran back into the room and locked the door.

The next morning, Red's name was called for his presentation. Tenn watched as the Instructor whispered something to a soldier. She looked around at her classmates, trying to keep the nerves form her face. Her eyes connected with Skoodge's. The shorter smeet smiled and waved, then curiously nodded his head towards some chemicals sitting on another smeet's desk. Without a sound, and still smiling, he shifted the micro-laser on his own desk and shot a burst at the beakers.

Tenn was out of the room before the smoke had cleared.

XXX

"Somebody find him!"

"He's on the third floor!"

"Hurry after him!"

M sat up and hurried over to his cell door trying to see what all the commotion was about. The guard at the door was awake and alert, unlike usual. "What's going on?"

"Nothing that has anything to do with you," the guard responded. M walked back to his cot in a huff.

"Just give it up. They don't tell us anything that's going on." Dwicky said from his place at the bed across the room. "It's called being a prisoner. Get used to it." M sighed and folded his hands over his head, making his way back to the other cot.

**_THUMP Thwap THUD!_**

"The hell was that?" Dwicky sat up staring at the door. M stared also. A shadow moved over the glass window on the door, and it was giving M the creeps. Something was wrong…

The cell door slid open with a _CLANG!_

A man dressed completely in black, with a dark trenchcoat, and near black hair stepped through the door. They couldn't see his eyes behind the dark sunglasses, as is gaze flowed to each of them. His hands rested at his side; no cool attitude with them tucked in his pockets, no tough guy clenched fists, just a relaxed, on guard, readiness for whatever may come. His voice wasn't particularly deep as he spoke but something about it was off, "If you two want out of here, follow me."

Dwicky didn't hesitate. He leapt off the bed and hurried to the stranger's side.

M didn't move.

"What's wrong with you man! You want to get back to your girlfriend don't you?" Dwicky asked. The man in the dark sunglasses said nothing, just stared at M as if analyzing him. As if he found what he was looking for, the man smirked, then turned and started to leave the room.

"Your friend knew that the kid was an alien," he said.

M tensed. "What?... What do you mean 'he knew'?" The man didn't respond but took a step to the door. M yelled out, stopping him, "HOLD IT! Answer me! Who are you…" His voice got quiet at the end; he feared the answer.

"Call me Bill," the man said, glancing back at M. "Last chance, you coming?"

"Why should I trust you?"

Dwicky groaned. "What's wrong with you man?! He's getting us out of here? What the hell else you need to know?"

Neither M nor Bill had broken eye contact during Dwicky's outburst. Bill smirked, a cold and knowing smile. "Then don't trust me, you'll live longer." He turned and walked out of the room, Dwicky on his heels. M ran to the door to see them striding away into the smoke. The guard that had been in front of the door the past two days, was slumped on the floor, and M was fairly certain that his head shouldn't be facing backwards. If M stayed, he would be blamed.

With no other option, The Letter M ran to catch up with Bill and Dwicky.

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A/N: ;~; guys I'm sorry that this chapter took so long to get out and yet it's so short and super intense with no cute moments (besides GIR and his mustard) and I'm sure you're all annoyed with this chapter and everything and totally feel bad that this chapter is crap but I really hope you guys will keep reading the story anyway! -gasps for breath-

So anyway, I'm having some serious writer's block and Invader Pinn disappeared on me so I have no one to brainstorm with. Plus school is in full swing and I'm getting busy with homework and clubs so there's not much time for writing. And also I'm sort of wanting to work on other stories as well (though writer's block on them is also making it hard).

but yeah... hope you keep reading!


	14. Conspiracy

**_A/N: _**_Hey guys! Once again the chapter took forever to get out and I don't think it's very good. School and drawing has taken up so much time and then I've been coming up with ideas for OCs and their new stories... I just need to get some of my stories finished and THEN work on the new ones... _

_This chapter's back to my average chapter length... sort of. I tried hard to make it good... but things are tricky and I'm not entirely sure where this story is going to take our heroes. _

_Leave a review and I'll try to get back to this story soon, though I've got a lot of others to update._

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**Chapter 15 – Conspiracy**

M swore as his foot stumbled on another tree branch hidden in the darkness. It was nearly morning and they'd been walking for hours. "Mind telling me where we're going?" he asked for the fifth time since their hasty departure. "And no one has even told me who those guys were let alone who you are." When he received no response again, M stopped where he was and stomped his foot down on a thin stick, snapping it. "ENOUGH! I'm not going another step unless you tell me who you are!" He folded his arms and didn't move.

Dwicky rolled his eyes grumbling, and Bill looked back at him for the first time since they had left the complex.

"Listen punk. We stop now and they'll be on us like sparkles on a unicorn, which, I promise you, is not nearly as pretty as it sounds. So you can either shut up and follow me or stay here and get captured again."

M raised an eyebrow. "We've been walking in sporadic paths while covering our tracks, crossing a river, climbing trees and jumping between branches for FIVE HOURS! NO ONE IS FOLLOWING US ANYMORE!"

Bill's eyes narrowed behind his shades. "Right, that's what THEY want you to think."

"What... That's what who wants me to think? Who even were those guys?!"

"S.E.N. The Swollen Eyeball Network."

"Eyeball?"

Dwicky groaned, "Man why do you even need to know this? Those guys were probably going to torture you to find that green kid, what else do you need to know before you realize they're bad news?!"

"Maybe a little proof that this guy," M jabbed his finger at Bill, "isn't worse!" Dwicky's hands curled into fists and he made a move toward M, but Bill thrust his hand out and grabbed Dwicky by the shoulder spinning him around. Dwicky stumbled to the ground.

"Hey! Wahdya do that for?"

"The Kid has a point, and you would do well to remember that." Bill walked forward until he and M were standing face to face. "I like you kid. You don't trust easy. Smart. So I'll tell yah what, you give me the benefit of the doubt for 2 more miles and I'll show you some proof that'll make you never doubt me again." He reached out his hand. M gazed at the unexpected gesture, unsure of how to take it. But… what was there to lose? If this guy could somehow help located Zita and Dib… It was a chance he'd have to take. M accepted the handshake.

"Good." Bill turned his back on them, with his coat blowing in the wind. The blood red of sunrise lit the forest with an ominous glow as M and Dwicky followed the mysterious Bill through the forest.

XXX

M nearly tripped over Bill when he stopped suddenly. They were standing on the edge of a large corn field. "We're here," Bill said. M looked around but didn't see even a barn in sight.

"Here where?"

Bill didn't answer. Reaching into his inner coat pocket, he pulled out what looked like garage door opener, though when he pressed the button it sounded more like a remote car lock. A double beep came from nowhere, and the ground began to shake beneath them.

"What the hell is this?!" M yelled; he stumbled and grabbed on to a tree trunk for support. His teeth rattled in his skull.

"This is my home base."

The earthquake stopped leaving behind an entrance into a deep underground… thing. M wasn't sure what it was really. He followed Bill and Dwicky down the ramp. The entrance hallway was lined with a multitude of vehicles; everything from a sleek 1961 Jaguar E-Type to a full blow military Tank. Dwicky immediately ran over to the Jaguar, evidently more interested in the cars than in Bill's explanation, he had to run to catch up with the two of them.

"I've been building this place for years. Took all the money I made back in the days when I worked for the Network. Those were the days before I realized what that group was really all about." Bill stopped at a doorway and palmed a keypad. The door slid away. They walked into a room filled floor to ceiling with computers; the walls were completely covered with TV monitors.

Bill dropped down into swivel chair and began typing away. The 9 lowest screens blinked then switched to a view of Dib's house. "The one you know as Dib, was also part of the Swollen Eyeballs. Titled Agent Mothman," The screens switched to each show a different picture of Dib, over several years' time. "I remember teaching him about paranormal investigation back when he was still a kid. He was going to be great. True determination to get to the truth. If that accident hadn't happened he might have still been sided with them. "

"Woah… Hold on… Dib? Dib Membrane? The kid who everyone thought was crazy up until 2 years ago? That Dib?" Bill nodded. M was shocked. He stared at all the pictures; he was even in a few of them. Laughing and pretending to be a yeti eating Dib's camera while Zita stood nearby laughing. It wasn't possible. If he knew about a group like this… why did he act like his paranormal "studies" were nothing more than a game?

Bill seemed to sense his question. "Anyone that joins the Network is sworn to secrecy. You can reveal your findings first to the network then to the public, if you get that far. Even then, you're never to say the Network's name to anyone not associated with it."

"So how come you're telling me?"

"Because I don't associate myself with them anymore; not after what happened."

"What happened?"

"That's not important right now," Bill said. M disagreed but didn't interrupt. "What is important is that once you're in, they don't let you leave."

"Wait… Are you saying that they're trying to hunt down Dib?"

"Mothman was a special circumstance. He'd been dedicated and honest since he first joined at 7 years old, so when he asked to leave to care for his sister, the boss allowed it on the condition that he never looks for, or speaks of any paranormal evidence or creatures ever again."

"LAST YEAR! That was when Dib quit talking about paranormal junk!" Bill nodded. "So why are they chasing him now?"

"The kid reneged on the deal. He found an alien, and took it home." The screens switched to a blurred picture of a green skinned kid looking through the upper floor window.

"That's not possible… Aliens don't exist."

Bill laughed. "I can promise you that they do. I've seen several species myself."

"But he's just a kid…"

"The correct term is smeet. That 'child' there…" the screen blinked as the picture of Zim was edited. Eyes changed from white and blue to round magenta orbs, the hair was removed and replaced with two thin stalks. "…is from planet. Irk; one of the most dangerous species in the universe."

M stared at the edited image. He couldn't believe it. Not only was Dib right about everything… but here he actually found the proof… and he kept it hidden. Why?!

"We're lucky that this one is young. Irkens are trained from birth to be the universe's ultimate soldiers." Bill explained. "There was a time in earths past when humans had dealings with them, exchanging natural resources for assistance in wars, but when the Irkens saw that our resources were dwindling they got bored and left. The Sahara Desert was one of the areas they took the resources from. They're a ruthless race, lacking in any emotions."

M thought back to the trembling child that had been led from the Membrane house, holding Zita's hand tightly, as if he was afraid she would disappear. That child was far from emotionless. 'That doesn't mean it wasn't dangerous,' M thought, reminding himself why his best friend was in the hospital in the first place. "So what's one of them doing coming back?"

"Well there have been a few over the centuries, but most of those were old and/or dying. Sending a child could only mean they're sending an unimportant soldier as a scout."

"A scout for what?"

"My guess? An Invasion. Earth has stabilized into a healthy planet since their last visit. Irk was always overpopulated to begin with. They're probably looking for space to expand their race."

Deep breath… M's hands rested over his face as he tried to process all this new information. Part of him still couldn't believe he was even having this conversation without laughing… but another part… the small part that had always wanted to believe Dib's wild stories… knew that everything he was hearing was true. "So where do the Bloated Eyeballs fit in to this?"

"Swollen Eyeballs. And they do what they've always done; hide the existence of cryptozoological creatures, and paranormal phenomena."

M looked up, a serious expression on his face, "then what do they want with the ki… the alien?"

"Same thing they always want with them. To get them on the first ship headed home."

"They're just gonna let it go?! But if what you said is true!"

Bill's laugh was filled with contempt, "The network is blind. They think that what people don't know about, can't hurt them. But that doesn't stop people from burning to death in fires started by EmberRoaches, now does it?"

"Uh…" M had no idea how to respond to that, "well anyway… Dib's still with that alien. Is he in danger? What about the other's with them?"

"For now they're probably safe. The Irken's ship was destroyed. Until it can secure a new one, it will need a native to hide him. It probably doesn't know that the Network would give it a free pass home." Bill typed some more, and a map popped up on the screen with a blinking red dot. "I was tracking their movements but lost the signal around this area. If we could just find them first we could rescue your friend and expose the alien."

"What can I do to help?"

Bill was facing the computer screens with his back to M. The Letter M never saw the dark smile that crossed his face.

XXX

"Are you sure this is going to work?"

"No."

Zita sighed and put her hands on her hips. "How reassuring." The sarcasm flew right over Zim's head, as the smeet went from machine to computer to other machine.

Everything seemed to be in order. Oddly enough this medical center looked very similar to an Irken ER. The place was dusty from disuse, and cobwebs hung from the ceiling, but most of the technology was intact. If he could just get the settings adjusted, the computer would take over the healing and Dib would be up and about in under an Earth day. If he could get it right that was… He didn't know all the words in the computer and Zita stated that she didn't "speak tech" … whatever that meant.

Gaz still hadn't returned. Better that she wasn't around though. It was hard enough without her yelling at him for touching her brother. With a last snapping wire in place, the computer screen blinked green for Go. Zim pressed 'enter' and the medial pod closed around Dib.

"And now we just wait?"

"That or figure out what else this stuff does."

Zita yawned loudly and stretched her hands up behind her head, "Have at it, but I don't understand computers so I think I'll just head upstairs to wait for Gaz." Zita turned to leave.

"Wa..i.." before Zim even realized it, he ran forward and grabbed the torn hem of Zita's dress. Zita felt the small tug and turned back. Zim was staring at the purple metal floor; his eyes were wide with confusion and terror.

"You want me to stay?" she asked. Zim nodded slightly, still not looking up at her. The room reminded him too much of Irk… and being alone in a room on Irk had never ended well for him. Even though he knew that Red and Purple where light years away, Zim just couldn't shake the feeling that they were hiding in every shadow.

Zita took a seat on the floor and pushed him off back towards the computers. She watched him run back and forth for a while before drowsiness over took her. Zim didn't mind her light snoring. It was almost like a melody to the hum of the equipment. He was just grateful she had stayed.

His eyes wandered to the medical pod in the center of the room. Zita was nice… but he was ready to have Dib awake again.

* * *

**R&R!**


End file.
